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SHETLAND. 
AND THE SHETLANDERS; 



1) 



2Ci)e Norti)etn (Itfccuit. 



y 

By CATHERINE SINCLAIR, 

Author of "Modern Accomplishments," "Modern Society," "Ilill and 
Valley," "Charlie Seymour," "Holiday House," &c. &c. 



O Scotland! nurse of bravest men, 
But nurse of bad men too ! 
For thee the good attempt in vain, 
What villains still undo ! 

Robertson op Struan. 



DEDICATED TO THE HIGHLAND SOCIETY. 




<f 



N E VV . Y O R K : 

D. APPLETON & CO., 200 BROADWAY. 

1840. 



UNIVERSITY PRESS. 
JOHN F. TROW, PRINTER, 114 NASSAU-STREET. 






PREFACE. 



The author ha\dng in a previous volume ventured 
forward with some apprehension, she has been so 
agreeably surprised by the success of her first shot, 
in bringing down a large covey of readers, that she 
feels encouraged now to discharge a second barrel, 
trusting it may not be said that she has overshot 
the mark. 

The more deeply grateful the author feels to 
those who have candidly, and only partially viewed 
her present attempt to throw some additional light 
and interest on the localities of Scotland, the more 
solicitous she is, not to draw too largely on their 
forbearance, or to intrude too frequently on their 
attention ; she now therefore concludes this work, 
hoping that the very indulgent public may long 
continue 

" To all its faults a little blind." 



SHETLAND 
AND THE SHETLANDERS 



DORNOCH. 



TO A SCOTCH COUSIN. 

I've often wished that I had clear, 
For life six hundred pounds a-year, 
A handsome house to lodge a friend, 
A river at my garden's end, 
A terrace- walk, and half a rood 
Of land, set out to plant a wood: 

Pope, 

My dear Cousin, — When students are about to 
leave Oxford, a list is given in of the books to 
which their attention has been chiefly devoted, and 
they are examined by a learned jury on the progress 
and depth of their attainments. If we were all 
obliged occasionally to render up before competent 
examiners such an account of our time, it would be 
amusing, in most cases, to see the miscellaneous list 
of favourite authors presented ! Instead of Homer, 



b DORNOCH. 

Cicero, and Herodotus, how often we should find 
" Trollope, Dickens, and Hook," or perhaps " Byron, 
Scott, and the Newgate Calendar," but of late your 
more abstruse studies have been seriously impeded 
by the incessant battledore and shuttlecock of our 
correspondence, and the Post-office must wonder 
what can be going on in the North, seeing so con- 
stant a succession of letters pouring in upon you, 
their seals strained almost to bursting, like the lock 
of a trunk on a jom'ney. 

We are credibly informed, that the Empress 
Josephine wore thirty new bonnets in a month ; and 
really those who travel through the wind and rain 
of this changeable summer would require to follow 
the example, or to wear theirs of cast-iron. Mr. 
M'Intosh ought to receive a petition from the ladies, 
to invent something becoming for us to wear during 
rain, as he certainly has sacrificed the ornamental 
to the useful in respect to gentlemen, who are much 
to be pitied for the sort of hideous domino they all 
wear in a shower, though they might be envied also 
for the impunity with which they can brave the 

worst now. I often think A would rather have 

a torrent of rain than otherwise, to prove how im- 
pregnable, amidst the war of elements, are his for- 
tifications. 

We had a delightful clearing-up towards eve- 
ning for inspecting the neat little county town of 



DORNOCH. 7 

Dornoch, where I greatly admired the magnificent 
donation of a fine cathedral presented to the city 
some years ago, by the Duchess-Countess of Suther- 
land, who expended .£6000 in renewing an ancient 
ecclesiastical edifice which stood here, dedicated to 
St. Gilbert, a saint with whom I was not previously 
acquainted. The former building had been burned, 
along with a large proportion of the town, by an 
invading army, but her Grace caused the old pro- 
portions and very elaborate decorations to be copied 
with almost Chinese minuteness, and now it wants 
only a few centuries of antiquity to be quite venera- 
ble. 

After this renewal had been successfully com- 
pleted, the Duchess only once enjoyed the gratifica- 
tion of attending public worship in that house of 
God, where she now lies interred beneath a wooden 
trap-door in front of the altar. There also sleeps 
the Duke her husband, to whom the county of Suth- 
erland owed, and has testified, almost unbounded 
respect and gratitude. On the summit of a neigh- 
bouring hill, a pillar, sixty feet high, surmounted by 
a colossal statue, may be seen for thirty miles round, 
" known to every star and every wind that blows." 
It was raised by the personal labour and subscrip- 
tions of his own attached tenantry to the memory of 
this nobleman, originally a stranger to our heath- 
covered mountains, who became so completely a 



8 DORNOCH. 

Scotchman by adoption, that he spent the whole 
income of his Highland estates in improving them, 
resided much in that remote district, associated cor- 
dially with his tenantry, and chose his dukedom to 
perpetuate his connection with this country and with 
the ancient Earldom of Sutherland, the oldest title 
in Britain. 

The Duke's death was supposed to have been 
hastened by the cold and fatigue of a steam voyage 
to Scotland ; and the Duchess, who sm-vived him 
five years, gave directions, on her death-bed, with 
singular forethought, that her body should be con- 
veyed to Dornoch by sea, but that any of her family 
who were to be present at the funeral should avoid 
the danger of a winter voyage, and follow by land. 

Few persons have enjoyed a more remarkably 
prosperous life than the Duchess-Countess of Suther- 
land, gifted from her earliest youth with an eminent 
share of beauty, talents, and fortune, which she lived 
to enjoy, almost unimpaired, during a long course 
of years. 

It is well known that when Lord Trentham was 
jilted by the beautiful but fickle Lady Caroline 
Spencer, some friend reported to hiin that the young 
heiress of Dunrobin had expressed astonishment how 
any lady could refuse one so deserving of happiness. 
Upon hearing this, he instantly declared that she 
could more than compensate for his recent disap- 



DORNOCH. 9 

pointraent, — the result of which eclaircissement was, 
an aUiance most propitious to the best interests of 
Scotland, 

The Duchess-Countess, when about to b# snatch- 
ed from all that this world could bestow, testified 
astonishing composure while she contemplated the 
immediate approach of death. When alluding to 
the prospect of her own impending dissolution, she 
said, " It is quite as well now as afterwards ;" and 
when advised to postpone some important business, 
she repUed, "There is no time for me but the 
present." 

No subject excites such deep interest in every 
human breast, as to ascertain how that last enemy- 
has been met by others, which must sooner or later 
conquer ourselves ! It often seems to me, that du- 
ring life, we are placed between two impenetrable 
curtains, the one hiding from our sight all that is 
past, the other all that is future ; but a death-bed 
throws both, as it were, aside, — the door stands a-jar 
leading into another world, — and we then see at 
once, in solemn an'ay, all the follies of our former 
existence, and all the terrors of a future judgment, 
which often so fearfully awaken those agonies of 
conscience that beset the mind of a dying sinner. 
Sir Henry Halford, who attended the final hours of 
many an eminent individual, has recorded his own 
surprise how many have no reluctance to die, — some 



10 DORNOCH. 

from impatience of suffering, others from passive in- 
difference, but many from faith in our holy reUgion. 
" Such men," he adds, " were not only calm and 
support^, but cheerful, in the hour of death, and I 
never quitted such a sick-chamber, without a hope 
that my last end might be like theirs." It is very 
remarkable to observe, how little our love of life is 
proportioned to the external prosperity we enjoy in 
it, and that whenever we fancy any individual hav- 
ing more than a common share of happiness, he is 
always some one of whom we know nothing, or 
very little. You have heard of the poor bed-ridden 
old beggar, who clasped his hands in an agony of 
grief when told he was dying, and exclaimed, " Oh, 
this is a pleasant world !" and you have seen others, 
with scarcely a want unsupplied, who seemed 
weary of their very existence, and endured it only 
from a di'ead of futurity. Baxter said, he was all 
his life tempted sinfully to wish that he had never 
been born ; and those who have attained the most 
that this world can offer, have greatest leisure to 
look around on the barrenness of the prospect, while 
they might be apt to exclaim, like Caesar, when he 
gained his empire, " Is this all !" A peaceful con- 
science, that blessing which all might enjoy, who 
rightly seek and value it, is the only support which 
will avail in the end, and some Christians have at- 
tained that holy faith which encouraged them to 



DORNOCH. 1 1 

feel a clam serene expectation, that when the veil 
was drawn back which hides eternity from our 
sight, they were immediately to behold the glories 
of Heaven. Yet how carefully must we discriminate 
between a resigned death, and a prepared death. 
Those who are most eagerly seeking the world's 
honours, pleasures, and applause, would scarcely be 
ready to acknowledge the wisdom of that last wash 
expressed by the unfortunate Princess Caroline Ma- 
tilda, who scratched these words with a diamond on 
the window of her prison — " Oh ! make me inno- 
cent — be others great!" Every living person is 
born with desires which the world, and all it con- 
tains, never can satisfy ; and though all the gifts of 
fortune accumulated around us, were conspiring to 
hide our Maker from our thoughts, we could not but 
feel that there are higher pleasures, and greater 
gifts, than any upon earth, which we are created to 
seek, and without which we can reach no happiness 
that deserves the name. It is astonishing how 
many persons never pause, in the hurry of life, to 
ask themselves in what their enjoyments consist, 
and to what they tend, — ^who live in mere vague 
sensations of either pleasure or pain, without ascer- 
taining whether they acquire all the best and rich- 
est blessings which might be procured. If we are 
merely receiving change for a note, what a cautious 
examination is made whether the full amount be 



12 DORNOCH. 

paid, and how carefully do we avoid being cheated 
of the smallest fraction, yet how indifferent we are 
whether the joys and hopes on which we spend our 
lives be genuine, and whether they be such as will 
certainly pass current in that future world to which 
we all are hastening ! 

As riches and honours, then, neither increase the 
love of life, nor diminish the awfulness of death, 
we can scarcely form too low an estimate of their 
intrinsic worth. When rightly used, however, not 
as the end, but as the means of enjoyment, they add 
so much to the usefulness and the inJfluence of those 
who desire to promote the glory of God, and the 
good of mankind, that they surely become legitimate 
objects of pursuit, though we read that Martin Lu- 
ther, in his last will and testament, returned special 
thanks to God that he had been born poor, and pos- 
sessed " neither house, land, nor money to leave 
behind." 

The Cathedral of Dornoch has been built, unfor- 
tunately, with so loud an echo inside, that part of 
the congregation hear the sound only, but not the 
sense, of what may be said ; and frequently, in fine 
weather, Mr. Kennedy prefers preaching in the open 
air. Even when talking to each other, we seemed 
to hear double, but much might be amended by 
hanging up curtains and draperies to deaden the re- 
verberation. Nothing is so little understood in 



GOLSPIE. 13 

architecture as the building of sacred edifices to suit 
the voice ; but it would be a useful invention if 
churches could be built so that only good sermons 
should be audible. 

The Duke and Duchess of Sutherland establish- 
ed, round the whole of their vast domains, a line of 
first-rate inns, each displaying for its frontispiece 
their own crest, the cat rampant, certainly, next to 
Whittington's, the most fortunate cat in the world. 
It was alleged formerly to be a curious peculiarity 
of this country, recorded by Sir Robert Gordon, that 
" ther is not a ratt in Sutherland ; and if they doe 
come thither in shipps from other pairts, which 
often happeneth, they die presentlie, how soon they 
doe smell the aire of that cuntrey ; but there is great 
store and abundance of them in Catheynes, the verie 
nixt adjacent province." Some of that very pecu- 
liar " aire" should be imported to London for the 
House of Commons. One of the best hotels in Scot- 
land may be found at this charming village of Gol- 
spie, situated close to a fine trouting stream, and 
near the noble park of Dunrobin, which is liberally 
opened for a public promenade. Mrs. Duncan, the 
landlady here, is sister to two clergymen, and a most 
pious, excellent person herself, moderate in her 
charges, and so cordial in her reception of guests, 
that it seems like visiting some kind old aunt or 
grandmother to arrive at the door. She hurried up 
2 



14 GOLSPIE. 

to US immediately with a most liberal presentation 
of wine and shortbread, that we might be " eating 
while we ordered dinner !" Our hostess spoke with 
tears of the late Duchess, who often stopped her 
carriage when passing the inn, to ascertain what 
travellers had lately been there ; and the good land- 
lady is gifted with the faculty most useful in her 
line, in which none but the Royal Family could ex- 
cel her, of never forgetting any person. Mrs. Dun- 
can had been completely perplexed by one guest, 
however, last time I was here, who arrived at Golspie 
in the mail, intending to pass on, but attracted by 
the splendid scenery and excellent fare, he ordered 
his baggage to be dismounted, and declared his in- 
tention to remain there all night. Day after day 
passed on, week after week elapsed, and still the 
gentleman occupied her best parlour, and lingered 
on, entranced by new beauties in the landscape, till 
the summer had passed entirely away. No name 
appeared on his portmanteau, and he neither receiv- 
ed letters, nor cultivated acquaintances ! The whole 
inn got into an uproar of curiosity about this inter- 
esting incognito ! According to all the rules of ro- 
mance, he ought to have been handsome, but conceive 
my disappointment at seeing a middle-aged, respect- 
able looking man, in a brown bob-wig ! Even Mrs. 
Duncan seemed quite mortified, that he was neither 
a disguised Prince, nor a swindler, all the silver 



DUNROBIN CASTLE. 15 

spoons remained in their places, and at last he paid 
his bill in quite a matter-of-fact way, put his trunk 
on the mail again, and exit on the top of the coach ! 

Mrs. Duncan's reminiscences of former guests 
are more disinterested than those of your old land- 
lady at Brighton, who estimated travellers by the 
length of bill they incurred, saying, "He was an 
excellent man, — always posted with four horses, 
ordered his bottle of sherry for dinner, and seldom 
went to bed without a hot supper at night !" 

I never felt a sensation so like being in a bal- 
loon as when gazing from the drawing-room win- 
dow of Dunrobin Castle, perched like an eagle's 
aerie on the summit of a lofty rock, and looking 
down on the waving tops of the trees, the ocean 
furrowed with streaks of foam, and the far distant 
prospect of Tarbetness, with its beacon-light 

"Streaming comfort o'er the troubled deep." 

A long hne of points and pinnacles terminates at 
Trouphead, and if you can look on the whole view 
without an ecstasy of admiration, shut your eyes 
on nature for ever after, as you are unworthy to 
behold her. The park, though not highly dressed 
or ornamented, has the beauty of great extent, and 
is abundantly wooded to the edge of the wide and 
intensely blue ocean. Every tree so exposed to the 
wild northern blast must have a precarious existence, 



16 DUNROBIN CASTLE. 

and those planted nearest the ocean generally perish 
on a forlorn hope ; but no species can brave the sea- 
breeze half so hardily as the Huntingdon willow, 
which has outgrown all its coteraporaries at least 
twelve feet in height, and is covered with abundant 
foliage, though all shaped like flags, with a bare 
pole next the sea, and the long branches fluttering 
and streaming towards the land. 

The enormously fat housekeeper, well-known at 
Dunrobin, was absent to-day, but we found a thin- 
ner one who answered our purpose equally well in 
displaying the house, which is considered to be the 
oldest inhabited residence in Britain. Do you re- 
member a conundrum with which a friend of ours 
once astonished the stately and dignified Duchess- 
Countess of Sutherland, " "Why is the proprietor of 
this place, like a thief on the gallows ? Because 
he has Done-robbing !" The date is 1100, and the 
name is of Gaelic derivation, signifying " the hill of 
Robert," after Robert Earl of Sutherland, who built 
it. In the court of this castle is one of the deepest 
draw wells in Scotland, but we must hope that truth 
does not lie at the bottom of it. 

This remote old castle used to be filled, not many 
years ago, with company as distinguished for rank 
and consequence as the guests at Windsor Palace. 
The first society in England was attracted by the 
Duchess, who lived there like a feudal Princess, en- 



DUNROBIN CASTLE. 17 

tertaining often thirty guests at dinner, and lodging 
sixty servants in the house. Since her lamented 
decease, a pall of mourning is spread over the whole 
county, and this venerable castle seemed to me now 
like an old friend in adversity, as I wandered through 
its desolate halls, remembering the last time I dined 
here, when " the free and independent electors of 
Sutherlandshire" were entertained at table, and her 
Grace's two pipers effectually drowned all political 
discussions, by performing pibrochs alternately, 
equipped, the one in the Sutherland tartan, the other 
in that of Lord Reay's country, which her Grace 
had recently added to her vast possessions. Even 
many of the old ancestors are vanished from Dun- 
robin, having gone to London to be refreshed and 
beautified, though copies of several still decorate the 
steward's room ; and I could not but fancy, in look- 
ing at the Duchess-Countess's mother, and her aunt, 
the good Lady Glenorchy, that, hanging where they 
do, they must lend their countenance occasionally 
to scenes and conversation rather unsuitable to their 
dignity. My grandmother, Lady Janet Sutherland's 
portrait appears there in the character of a little 
smiling old-fashioned infant, certainly rather formal, 
with a cherry in her hand, looking very imlike the 
venerable character she afterwards became, when, 
such was the reverence felt for her in Caithness, that 
a clergyman hearing she was to preside at an 
2* 



18 DUNROBIN CASTLE. 

Edinburgh assembly, directed his letter to her as 
" Moderator of the General Assembly, Edinburgh !" 
Her nephew, the last Earl of Sutherland's likeness, 
in full Highland garb, is to be seen on the staircase. 
Judging from that, and the other portraits of him in 
various splendid costumes, which decorate different 
apartments, he must have had a very interesting ap- 
pearance, and his Countess has so animated and 
speaking an expression, that her mere picture en- 
livens the room, and she must have been a delightful 
companion. She and her husband having both died 
young, within sixteen days of each other, were buried 
in one grave at Holyrood Chapel, and the Duchess- 
Countess raised a monument to the memory of her 
parents in Dornoch Cathedral. It consists of two 
marble pillars, each surmounted by an urn, and 
crowned with a coronet. This inscription is carved 
underneath — " They were lovely and pleasant in 
their lives, and in their death they were not divided." 

A dismal likeness is here, representing the Duke 
of Richmond, who never laid aside his mournino- 
after the execution of Charles I. ; and we admired 
an interesting picture of Lady Glenorchy in her 
childhood, teaching music to an orphan girl whom 
she educated ; an early indication of that active be- 
nevolent usefulness, for which, in more essential 
things, she became afterwards so distinguished. 

The Marquis of Hastings, and a gay party of 



DUNROBIN CASTLE. 19 

visiters at Dunrobin, once secured the whole mail 
at Golspie, and wheeled themselves round to Thurso, 
where they hired post horses to John 0' Groat's 
house, taking refreshments along with them — a ruin 
is, of com'se, nothing without a sandwich — and were 
back next night, making a circuit of 120 miles. 
Most travellers must be grievously disappointed in 
the far-famed John O' Groat's house, of which not 
a fragment remains. The downs in that place, how- 
ever, are the most vividly and intensely green you 
ever saw, and the clear white waves break along a 
beach composed, for many miles' extent, of shells 
ground to powder ; 

all beside is pebbly length of shote, 



And far as eye can reach, it can discern no more. 
During our progress along forty miles from Dun- 
robin to Wick, we drove so close to the sea, that 
but for the height of the hills, we might have kept 
one wheel in the water all the way, and the journey 
was like a voyage, without the discomfort or danger. 
The distant sea gulls looked like a flight of butter- 
flies, and the glittering foam was blown in feathers 
along the ocean, " a moment white, then gone for 
ever !" Many parts of this coast are bold and fine, 
though the bleak and barren prevails elsewhere, and 
several of the fields are so covered with large rocks, 
some flat and others upright, that the appearance 
was like that of a church-yard. One proprietor, to 



20 HELMSDALE. 

consume the superfluous stones, has built little towers, 
resembling chessmen, at the corners of several fields; 
but if the whole had been gathered up, they would 
make a perfect pyramid of Egypt. 

The flourishing little sea-port of Helmsdale, 
which now sends out a fleet of several hundred her- 
ring boats, is inhabited by ci-devant cottagers from 
the rural parts of Sutherlandshire, where foiiy miles 
of country, once their home, looks now as if a vic- 
torious enemy had laid it waste ; every little hamlet 
in ruins, though the scorched and blackened walls 
yet remain, the church where once a numerous con- 
gregation assembled, now so nearly empty, that the 
parish clergyman might address, his clerk as Dean 
Swift did, " dearly beloved Roger !" and the unten- 
anted gardens, still partly enclosed, and more bright- 
ly green than the surrounding common, 

where once the garden smiled, 

And still where many a garden flower grows wild. 

The villagers long resented this arbitrary sub- 
stitution of sheep, while they were themselves driven 
in flocks to the coast, and when any of the Suther- 
land family appeared in that neighbourhood for some 
time afterwards, they were followed by crowds an- 
grily imitating the bleating of sheep ; but if the end 
could sanctify the means, that measure has turned 
out well, as the people, formerly steeped in poverty, 
and sunk in the desponding indolence consequent on 



ORD OF CAITHNESS, 21 

hopeless penury, are now become industrious, cheer- 
ful, and prosperous. We saw the Castle of Helms- 
dale, looking like the ruins of an old band-box. 
Once upon a time, however, it had inhabitants, when 
an atrocious murder was committed there by Isabella 
Sinclair, who poisoned the Earl and Countess of 
Sutherland, and was condemned to death for the 
crime in Edinburgh, but made away with herself on 
the day of her execution, cursing her cousin, George 
Earl of Caithness, whom she accused of having in- 
stigated the crime, that her own son might succeed 
to the title, a promising youth, who, unfortunately 
for himself, brought a strange retribution on his am- 
bitious mother, as he drank the poisoned cup she 
had prepared for Lord Sutherland's only son, and 
immediately expired. 

The Ord of Caithness was formerly pre-eminent 
for being the most dangerous bit of road in Scot- 
land. Mr. Telford tamed it down, however, into 
such perfect safety and insignificance, that modern 
travellers can scarcely credit the difficulty and haz- 
ard with which ten years ago it was crossed, unless 
they are shown the old track, an almost perpendi- 
cular line of loose stones at the edge of an airy pre- 
cipice. On first beholding this mountainous road 
since its metamorphosis, I felt somewhat like the 
fairy whose tent was turned into a thimble ! Du- 
ring the last century, whenever the late Earl of 



22 ORD OF CAITHNESS. 

Caithness, my grandmother Lady Janet Sinclair, or 
any of the chief landed proprietors, entered that 
county, a troop of their tenants assembled on the 
border of Sutherland, and drew the carriage them- 
selves over the hill, a distance of two niiles, that 
nothing might be trusted in such a scene to the dis- 
cretion of quadrupeds. A pretty considerably nar- 
row, perpendicular road skirted along the very edge 
of a precipice rising twelve hundred feet abruptly 
out of the ocean, without the smallest hint of a para- 
pet, and many travellers, seeing this formidable ob- 
stacle, turned their horses' heads without proceeding 
to scale it. The accident-maker for the Diunfries 
Courier should settle for life here, as there is quite 
a treasmy of untold stories to be heard in every 
house, — how the mail was upset in one place, and 
at another how Lord Duffus had only time to 
spring out and save his life before his gig and horse 
went over, and never spoke more. It appears to 
me, that gigs all come to an untimely end. I never 
yet saw a newspaper, without one or two having 
run off, and if ever they are within reach of a pre- 
cipice, they make a point of going over. The mail- 
coach now rattles down the whole descent of the 
Ord, scarcely deigning even to use a drag ! 

It is an old estabhshed superstition, that none of 
our clan may cross the Ord on a Monday, because 
on that day of the week, forty Sinclairs, command- 



ORD OF CAITHNESS. 23 

ed by the Earl of Caithness, ventured over to the 
battle of riodden Field, and not one survived ex- 
cept the driunmer, who was dismissed before the 
battle began. The whole troop had dressed in 
green,'and since then it is likewise considered fool- 
hardy in any one bearing the name of Sinclair to 
wear green. I question whether we are entitled 
even to eat green peas, or to drink green tea, and 
whenever a Sinclair loses his purse, it must of 
course have been of the objectionable colour. 

When my late father succeeded to his estate, 
there was not a road, nor a single cart in Caithness, 
and he introduced the first highway when only eigh- 
teen years of age. Having been taunted with the 
impossibility of carrying one over the hill of Ben- 
cheilt, he went to the place in person, assembled 
1260 labourers, assigned each a separate spot, where 
tools and provisions had already been placed, and 
in one single day, what had only been a rough 
horse-track in the morning, became fit for carriages 
before night. Soon after, he suggested the plan to 
Lord Melville, of obtaining je50,000 as a grant by 
Parliament, from the Scotch forfeited estates, to make 
roads and bridges throughout the ultra-northern 
counties, where the drivers of cattle had to swim 
with their droves across the rivers when taking 
them to market ; and from the same fund he ob- 
tained j£8500 for making a harbour at Wick. 



24 BERRroALE. 

A sixth part of Caithness belonged to ray father 
when he came of age, and he represented the county 
during more than thirty years. No lover ever felt 
more anxious to decorate his mistress, than he did 
to adorn the barren wilds of his native district. He 
even persuaded himself it was beautiful ! As one 
proof of his zeal, the romantic entrance to Caithness 
is richly wooded, for he planted the hills of Berri- 
dale to their very summits, and sold them afterwards 
for little more than it cost to embellish them. Two 
salmon streams unite here, and flow round the base 
of these mountains, while the road winds circui- 
tously down to the very bottom of a deep glen, 
where a charmingly situated inn, built when the 
trees were planted, lies embosomed in wood. Al- 
most overhanging this resting place, but nearly two 
hundred feet higher up the liill, stands Langwell, 
now the residence of Mr. Donald Home. When 
the late proprietor, after taking possession of his 
recently purchased estate, first appeared at church, 
the parish clergyman, being gratefully attached to 
my father, looked full in the face of his new auditor, 
and gave out for his text the fifth verse of the 
seventy-fifth Psalm, " Lift not up your Horn on 
high." The clergy in primitive times used to de- 
light in selecting eccentric texts. One of Bishop 
Bull's most interesting sermons is on that verse of 
St. Paul's, " The cloak which I left at Troas, bring 



NOTTINGHAM HOUSE. 25 

\vith thee, and also the books, but especially the 
parchments." A very admirable one was preached 
once against lukewarmness, on the text, " Ephraim 
is a cake unturned ;" and a clergyman not long 
since announced for his subject, " What will this 
babbler say V 

Some miles north of Berridale, stands the bluff 
old Castle of Dunbeath, which in old times was 
garrisoned by the Marquis of Montrose shortly before 
his death. It juts out into the ocean, with the sea 
blast whistling through its walls, and the bold dash- 
ing waves roaring and sparkling at its foot. A 
spurious attempt at trees in front, scorched with 
cold till they are perfectly threadbare, actually made 
me laugh. Two rows had started in a straight line 
from the road to the house, but about half way they 
suddenly came to an untimely end. The tall, bare, 
skeleton trunks, and the perpendicular branches, 
were huddled all together, with a thin canopy of 
foliage near the top, as if they were carrying a tray 
of leaves on their heads. The effect was more 
comical than you can fancy. 

The next place we passed was Nottingham 
House, a large bleak lonely mansion, belonging to 
the male representative of the Sutherland family, 
who would have inherited that ancient earldom, 
for which his predecessors had a law-suit, endeav- 
ouring to prove that the Earls of Sutherland for 
3 



26 WICK. 

three centuries had all been usurpers, but like most 
old Scotch titles, this was impartially settled in the 
female line. Nottingham House used formerly to 
be in sad disrepair, and the late proprietor was 
overheard once, when a visiter unexpectedly arrived, 
calling loudly to his servant, " Bring me a fork to 
open the drawing-room door !" Many of the win- 
dows were at that time built up, and a clergyman 
who slept there one night previous to preaching in 
the parish church, got up next morning and opened 
his shutters, but seeing no light, he retired to bed, 
wondering much what had disturbed him so early. 
Unable to sleep, he watched impatiently for the 
first glimpse of dawn, thinking that certainly a sleep- 
less night was a very tedious affair, when at length 
the clerk rushed into his room, saying that the whole 
congregation were assembled in their pews, and had 
waited impatiently for some time ! 

Wick is a sea-port, so fragrant with fish, that 
when we entered I thought of your brother's voyage 
in a herring smack, when the seats were barrels of 
herrings, and the staircase from the cabin formed by 
piles of casks. One year, many fields in Caithness 
were manured with herrings ; but none of the pro- 
prietors find the perfume so oppressive as strangers 
do, because these fisheries are the chief sources of 
their wealth, only reaped within the last half cen- 
tury, when my father advanced money himself, that 



WICK. 27 

the inhabitants might try their first experunent of 
fishing on these coasts, and now 14,000 Caithness 
fishermen are in constant employment gathering in 
their annual harvest of herrings. My very letter 
will smell of fish, if I say another syllable about 
it, but the flavour cannot be very injurious to health, 
as I have this evening drank tea with an interesting 
old lady who has lived here ninety-nine years. 
During that period she has been a warm-hearted 
friend to three generations of our family in succes- 
sion, so you may suppose it was with no ordinary 
feelings that I went to the house. Her first recep- 
tion of me was in the true Highland fashion, saying, 
with an expression of touching retrospection, " Your 
father's daughter is welcome ;" and after ascer- 
taining that all our family were well, she added in 
a tone of earnest feeling, " They cannot be better 
than I wish them." There was something almost 
Ossianic in the tone of her language ; and it is 
pleasing to see not only the faculties, but also the 
affections, pei-fectly fresh and perfectly wide awake 
at so advanced a period of life. It had all the so- 
lemnity of a voice from the dead, when she spoke 
of former days, and of friends long departed, whose 
very existence seemed to me a tale of other times. 

When the Romans cursed an enemy, it was in 
these words, " May you survive all your friends 
and relations." How often I have thought it would 



28 WICK. 

be the saddest feeling of extreme old age, to see 
" friend after friend depart," — the lights one by one 
extinguished which enlivened our early days, and to 
think that those connections on whose kindness we 
are finally cast will seem cheerless and remote, if 
none remain who can remember that we were ever 
young, happy, and beloved, and who have known 
nothing of us but the dark evening of a life so full 
of sorrows and infirmities, that it would scarcely 
seem a duty to weep over its close ! The three mes- 
sengers of death are accident, sickness, and old age, 
all unwelcome when they come, but the last is that 
which requires most sympathy, and too often excites 
the least, for the reverence paid in ancient times to 
venerable years is not now universal, having given 
place in a lamentable degree to indifference, and 
even to ridicule, though in many instances, a satir- 
ical feeling is excited, not without justice, against 
those who will not grow old with a good grace, and 
who never ask themselves, in the language of Scrip- 
ture, " How old art thou ?" When I see aged persons 
vainly struggling to keep up the semblance of youth, 
that text sometimes occurs to my recollection, " Gray 
hairs are here and there upon him, and he know^eth 
it not." The celebrated wit, Lord Norbury, de- 
termined to have his laugh to the last, laid a bet of 
jGIOO with his cotemporary, the late Marquis of 
Drogheda, which would survive. Both were taken 



WICK. 29 

ill at once, and Lord Norbury, who lingered longest, 

gained the money, but remarked, that he thought 

it would have turned out " a dead heat." The 

average of human existence is said to be nearly 

double in Britain what it is in Naples ! Old Mrs. 

Butler, whom you remember in Edinburgh walking 

often more than a mile to see me, was ascertained 

to be one hundred and ten when she died, but life 

at such an extreme age is like a flower without 

root, the fost blast lays it low : and in taking leave 

of our aged and respected friend at Wick, I felt a 

solemnizing consciousness that both shall pass into 

another, and I trust a better world, before we meet 

again. 

There everlasting spring abides, 
And never withering flow'rs ; 
Death like a narrow sea divides 
This heav'nly land from ours. 



WICK. 



I like the weather when it's not loo cold, 
That is, I like three months in all the year. 

BVRON. 

My dear Cousin, — We may say here, like Lord 
Dudley, that the summer has set in with its usual se- 
verity ! July and August have forgotten themselves 
completely, and turned a cold shoulder to all their 
old friends and admirers. In this country the leaves 
have at all times a short reign, but this year they 
were frightened to death by a frost, soon after they 
appeared, looking scorched and lifeless now, espe- 
cially the fir tribe, which put up with cold blasts 
worse than many that seem less hardy. 

If travellers would only condescend to forget that 
there are such things as trees in the world, they could 
not but admire the bold coast scenery of Caithness, 
and we walked three miles from Wick this mornins 
in search of two very strange and tottering old sea- 
beaten ruins, which have bid defiance to the waves 
for many centuries. The Castles of Sinclair and 
Girnigo are but little known, though well worth 
making acquaintance with, being so remote and so 
retired from public life, that few tourists are aware 



CASTLE GIRNIGO. 31 

of their merit. These time-worn remnants stand 
side by side, and the oldest wears well, while the 
other is a mere wreck, yet the entire mass is mag- 
nificent, towering out of the broad ocean in a noble 
and commanding style. The situation is very dig- 
nified and impressive. A natural wall of perpen- 
dicular rock, about sixty feet high, runs out like a 
long pier into the ocean, surrounded on three sides 
by a boiling foam of waves, struggling forward, and 
lashing themselves in ceaseless fury at its base. On 
the utmost verge of this point, and scarcely to be 
distinguished from the natural masonry of rock, stands 
the massy wall of Castle Girnigo, still about five 
stories high, and looking ahuost habitable, the win- 
dows, doors, and loop-holes, being faced with red 
free-stone, conspicuously seen amidst the surround- 
ing mass of sea-green walls. A curious subterra- 
nean staircase descends far beneath the level of the 
tide, and a narrow concealed passage under ground 
leads to a creek w^here the waves beat in with angry 
vehemence, and where a boat was formerly hid, in 
wliich the family of Lord Caithness escaped when 
the fortress was besieged and about to be taken. 

A tall tottering fragment of Castle Sinclair rears 
its venerable head on high, looking nearly as unsafe as 
the pillars of brick built by children, which cannot 
be balanced above five minutes, and yet not a stone 
has fallen within the memory of the oldest man in 



32 WICK. 

the parish. There is an "oldest man" in all par- 
ishes, who remembers eveiy thing, and vouches for 
all remarkable facts. 

The family motto of Lord Caithness is, " Com- 
mit thy work to God." It seems rather inappro- 
priate to an earl of ancient times, known as " George 
the wicked," who became chancellor of Scotland, 
and lived a great part of his long and atrocious life 
within the walls of Girnigo Castle, w^here we saw 
the room in which his second son, William Sinclair, 
was slain by his own eldest brother John, who bruised 
him to death with his fetters during his imprison- 
ment there, and where the earl cruelly starved to 
death his eldest son. He himself died at Edinbingh, 
and his- body lies interred at Roslin Chapel ; but he 
desired that his heart — such as it was — should be 
buried in a handsome cemetery, raised in honour of 
his murdered son, and which still remains, forming 
an ornament to the city of Wick, where so much 
hospitality now prevails, that we saw little danger 
of any one being starved in the present day. Caith- 
ness piques itself on giving the best breakfasts in 
Scotland, and I wish you could have accompanied 
us to the manse this morning, where every guest 
would require half-a-dozen appetites to achieve what 
his knife and fork are expected to do. The lady 
who said her appetite required to be amused, should 
have taken her place here, surrounded by all the 



WICK. 33 

dishes peculiar to a Highland dejeune. You would 
be much surprised at seeing the Caithness geese, 
which are smoked and salted like Westphalia hams, 
and are said to sharpen the appetite amazingly, 
though a gentleman once complained that he did 
not find it so, having picked the bones of one, with- 
out feeling a whit more hungry ! 

In the parish of Wick may be seen the truth of 
Dr. Chalmers's remark, that " a house-going minister 
makes a church-going people." Nothing can ex- 
ceed the reverence which every Christian here de- 
lights in testifying towards the zealous, able, and 
long-tried servant of God who officiates among them. 
It is anxiously hoped, that one so fitted to guide 
others, may long be spared himself; but having been 
lately in precarious health, Mr. Phin fainted twice 
last Sunday in the pulpit. The use of restoratives 
revived him the first time, and he resumed the ser- 
vice, but a few minutes afterwards he had a more 
prolonged attack, which obliged him to desist, and 
the congregation dispersed, many of them in tears. 
Next morning the manse gate was besieged by par- 
ishioners, eagerly inquiring how he had passed the 
night, and several old women forced their way into 
the house, with various infallible nostrums to cure 
his disorder, but unanimous in only one point, which 
was, in earnestly admonishing him to " take nothing 
the doctor ordered!" Here the common people 



34 WICK. 

have a superstitious horror of the faculty, being per- 
fectly convinced, that, hke rat-catchers, they bring 
the evil they profess to cure ; and three years ago, 
an Edinburgh apothecary narrowly escaped with 
his life, being suspected of importing the cholera to 
Wick in his pill-box. 

From the manse windows, Mr. Phin pointed out 
to me a newly erected " Popish chapel," which he 
looked at as if it were a mine dug under the town, 
and ready to explode. K the rapid extension of 
Roman Catholic influence were regarded with the 
same salutary horror in quarters where it may yet 
prove more dangerous, we might indeed rejoice, for 
it is an alarming circumstance to a Protestant na- 
tion, if anything can thoroughly alarm us, that such 
edifices are arising in every part of Scotland, though 
fortunately they are as yet only like traps set to 
catch a congregation, — the casket without the 
jewels, — not being yet, in most instances, supplied 
with audiences. This very small chapellette at 
Wick is only attended by a few soldiers' wives from 
Ireland, and the funds for raising it were in no de- 

Since writing the above, this exemplary minister of Christ 
has been called into the presence of that almighty Being, in 
a better world, whom he so faithfully served upon earth. 
His last hours were full of hope, peace, and Christian resig- 
nation ; and amidst the heartfelt grief of his numerous con- 
gregation, it may still be said, " He being dead, yet speaketh." 



WICK. 35 

gree contributed by Caithness. It has been conjec- 
tured that the Papists wished to boast of their 
dominion reaching to every extremity of Britain; 
but I hope we shall never come quite to Archbishop 
Magee's antithesis about the Irish, when he offended 
all parties by saying, that they have " a church 
without a religion, and a religion without a church!" 
At the ancient house of Kilravock, which I have 
already described, there is now to be seen a bull, 
signed by the Pope's own hand, granting plenary 
remission of all their sins, to Colonel Rose's family, 
and to every branch of his house, from the date of 
this document, to a period of which there are still 
about forty years to run ; but I am happy to under- 
stand that none of this family have yet taken any 
very extraordinary advantage of their uncommon 
privileges. 

Two ladies of rank in different parts of Scotland, 
within the last three years, have each built a chapel, 
entirely at her own expense, as large as the parish 
church. One of them, raised by the present Duchess 
of Leeds, I saw, the architecture of which, like that 
of all Popish buildings, is beautiful. It should be 
the ambition of Protestants, to out-church, out-pray, 
and out-preach those zealous sectarians, for we are 
too apt to regard Roman Catholic supremacy, and 
Roman Catholic persecutions as a tale of other 
times, totally extinct now, like the superstitions of 



36 STIRKOKE. 

ghosts and -svitchcraft, which I trust may be the 
case ; but one would wish on such a subject, as 
Shakspeare says, " to make assurance doubly sure," 
leaving those who advocate the worse cause. 

To prove their doctrine orthodox, 
By apostolic blows and knocks. 

If we had a horticultural show in Caithness, 
every prize ought to be gained by the gardener at 
Stirkoke, where an unusual variety of flowers has 
been enlisted into the servdce, and the proprietor, 
Mr. Home, wages a perpetual and successful war 
against the northern blasts. Rhododendrons are 
there in splendid flower, dwarf rhododendrons in a 
blaze of blossoms, and pansies equal to any I have 
seen elsewhere. The Russian cranberry is expected 
some time or other to produce fruit ; the camellias 
are doing their very best to live ; the fir-trees are 
not yet perfectly dead ; sixty acres of hard wood 
in eveiy variety are very thriving ; the forest trees 

have grown so tall, that A- could not touch the 

top of them with his mnbrella ; and a most beauti- 
ful green-house is glowing with geraniums, fuschias, 
passion-flowers, musk-plants, and balsams, besides 
which, in the open air, we observed several exotics 
from the south, such as wall-flowers, honeysuckles, 
jessamine, &c. &c. In short, it is astonishing how 
much embellishment may be effected by perse- 



STIRKOKE. 37 

verance and enterprise, for the general aspect of 
Stirkoke is quite verdant, the house not much over- 
topping the trees, and the leaves almost as green in 
July, as we generally see them in October. In 
some places nearer the sea it was very different, for 
the unhappy looking forests resembled an old broom 
turned up, and a stranger remarked, there was not 
a tree in Caithness on which any one who was tired 
of life, could hang himself. 

In the plantations at Stirkoke, we started a fine 
covey of young pheasants, probably the most north- 
ern colony of these birds in the world. A noble 
looking red deer also was tethered in the park, 
looking so quiet and domestic, that it seemed curious 
to think what days of toil and sleepless nights a 
sportsman would gladly have endured, to see the 
mere tips of his horns, but there he stood safe from 
every gun, though ready to be shot at the short- 
est notice. A French cook in the Highlands some 
years ago, sent up the most magnificent dinner, made 
entirely of red-deer venison, and no one could have 
found out how nearly all the various dishes were 
connected, but the second course must have been 
rather defective, consisting only of hartshorn jelly. 
The flavour is rather powerful, but a Frenchman 
can disguise any thing, or cook a white leather 
glove into a palatable morsel, never being reduced 
to quite such straits as the Scotch housekeeper you 
4 



38 STmKOKE. 

told me of, who, trusting to the impunity with 
which her ungainly side-dishes usually escaped un- 
tasted from the dining-room, and finding herself at 
a loss to fill up one corner of the table, sent up a 
finely formed shape of porridge under a white sauce. 
Nothing makes cheerfulness flow in upon the 
spirits more certainly than travelling, — the con- 
stantly varying panorama of new ideas and new 
subjects of interest, besides a fair opportunity for 
grumbling whenever you feel in the humour, which, 
I am convinced, is a great luxury to some travellers, 
from the frequent use they make of it. We all 
wish to be either envied or pitied ; and at present I 
could make out a very good case either way, ac- 
cording to the representation of our pleasures or 
difficulties on the road j but I am always for view- 
ing the bright side of every thing, and never would 
wish to look at the sim as philosophers do, merely 
to discover the spots. 

Having now sent you three sheets of the best 
superfine Bath post, it is time to economize my 
stationery, and to wish you a safe journey through 
what I have already written ; therefore, with best 
wishes, adieu ; and, as the poet, whoever he was, 
very sensibly remarks, 

" An adieu should in utterance die, 

When written should faintly appear, 

Only heard in the sob of a sigh, 

Or seen in the blot of a tear.'' 



CAITHNESS 



To gain his purpose, he performed Ihe part 
Of a good actor, and prepared to start. 

My dear Cousin, — Letter-writing brings forth 
the dormant ideas that would otherwise slumber in 
our minds, and arranges them before us, like nine- 
pins out of a box. Mine tumble out so miscellane- 
ously, that they will not be very easily drilled into 
order ; but I hope you may be sufficiently interested 
to grope your way on with me. As Bishop Hall 
says, " curiosity is the appetite of the mind," so we 
shall suppose you are perfectly dying of it now, and 
require as much mental food as our travels can pos- 
sibly supply. 

One of the best farmers in this county, my 
brother's tenant, Mr. Gunn, is the fifteenth in regu- 
lar descent, from father to son, who has occupied 
the same land ! He has six sons, all skilful agri- 
culturists, several of whom have already made them- 
selves comfortably independent, and his mode of in- 
structing them in business is uncommon, as well as 
extremely judicious. The beautiful and romantic 
little farm of Dalmore, M^hich he rents from Sir 



40 CAITHNESS. 

George, has been sub-let to each of his sons in suc- 
cession as they grew up, and there they serve an 
apprenticeship in the management of this small con- 
cern, for which their father exacts the full value. 
He annually purchases their stock, and drives as 
close a bargain with his sons as if they were 
strangers, until each is thoroughly versed in all the 
mysteries of the field and of the market-place. Two 
of these young men made six thousand pounds last 
year in Sutherlandshire, by the sale of sheep and 
wool ; so farmers need scarcely emigrate to Austra- 
lia to make fortunes in that line : and affluence may 
still be realized at home, by those who have pru- 
dence and industry. It was the saying, long ago, 
of a person who knew the world better than either 
you or I, that " many succeed by talent, many by a 
miracle, but most people by beginning without a 
shilling !" 

Since we arrived in Caithness, the eldest of these 
promising young men has been suddenly cut off, at 
the early age of twenty-five, by the small-pox, which 
occasions a deep sensation of sympathy and sorrow 
throughout the whole county ; and many of the 
chief proprietors assembled at his funeral, as well as 
an immense concourse of people, to testify their res- 
pect and regret. Fifty years since the proprietors 
in this county scarcely improved an acre a-year, 
but now several East Lothian farmers have found it 



THUKSO. 41 

worth while to take land in this neighbourhood for 
feeding young cattle ; and one of them has brought 
a sister with him to manage his household affairs, 
who sets an example, that I hope may be followed 
by all the pianoforte-playing farmeresses in Scotland, 
as she personally assists in every variety of active 
employment suited to her station. I was told that 
all the milk in the dairy is taken to her every morn- 
ing, and is never seen again till she has churned it 
into butter ; and then the profits of her poultry-yard, 
which amount in most places to considerably less 
than nothing, are, by her skilful management, suf- 
ficient to pay for all the tea and groceries used in 
her brother's house. 

The drive from Wick to Thurso is about twenty 
miles long, through a highly cultivated country, 
where fields of the richest grain, and substantial 
farm-houses, ornament the scene ; but the less we 
say the better about beauty, for the road is as level 
and as treeless as your drawing-room floor. A folio 
page is now in existence, attested by the clergy and 
gardeners in the county, containing an exact cata- 
logue of all the trees growing in Caithness a hun- 
dred years ago, in which even the currant-bushes 
are recorded ; but since then, by the indefatigable 
exertions of Mr. Traill, the late Earl of Caithness, 
and my father, the woods and forests could not so 

easily give a census of their population. Some of 
4* 



42 THURSO. 

our own, at a distance, look very like tattered ura- 
brellas ! 

The first view of Thurso from the south, in a 
fine day, is exceedingly striking and beautiful, in- 
cluding the gigantic headlands of Orkney. The 
" Old rnan of Hoy" standing a thousand feet above 
the sea ; the Pentland Frith connecting the Atlantic 
r.nd German Oceans, and sprinkled with a multitude 
of ships ; the tall abrupt rocks of Holbourn Head ; 
the charming bay of Scrabster, considered the best 
harbour on this coast ; the river sweeping through 
the town ; the elegant bridge ; the new church, 
larger than any north of Inverness ; the bright yel- 
low sands ; the numerous villas and farm-houses ; 
and though last, certainly not least, the ancient 
towers of Thurso Castle, built by George Earl of 
Caithness, in 1660, and belonging since 1718 to our 
family, now represented by the county member. Sir 
George Sinclair. 

I was amused to hear that some Eno-lish travel- 

o 

lers inquired once at the Thurso inn, whether there 
were many fine pictures at this castle, when the ' 
waiter, who had never beheld any others, confi- 
dently replied, that the collection was first-rate, 
very old, and well worth seeing. The connoiseurs 
hastened over accordingly, their heads filled Math 
Corregios and Titians, when, melancholy to relate, 
not so much as a single Sir Joshua Reynolds or 



THURSO CASTLE. 43 

Jameson rewarded their pains, but merely eight 
generations of very formal looking ancestors, appear- 
ing exactly like every other person's ancestors, the 
most remote portraits exhibiting the smallest waists 
and largest wigs, while they all became less exag- 
gerated towards our own time. 

A recent addition has been made to Thurso 
Castle, planned and executed by Burn, the cobbler- 
general of worn-out houses, by whom ancient edifices 
are mended, cleaned, dyed, and repaired, to look 
as good as new, or even better. When A per- 
ceived flaws in the architecture of several old castles 
lately, he wished they were all " Burn'd" like ours. 
Certainly the situation here is somewhat uncom- 
mon. In former times, showers of spray from the 
ocean used to dash up to our drawing-room window, 
when the waves, curling and grating along the 
shore, sometimes struck at the foundation with ani- 
mated vehemence, and rebounded among the rocks, 
till at length a breakwater was raised to defend the 
wall. My grandmother Lady Janet used to describe, 
that many years ago, when sitting by her own fire- 
side, a vessel was wrecked off the coast, so near the 
turrets, that she could hear the people's voices, yet 
though evei-y effort was used on behalf of the crew, 
" to yield them hope, w^hom help could never 
reach," not a life was saved from the wreck ! 

You might have imagined, that in such a posi- 



44 THURSO CASTLE. 

tion as I have described, this house was near enough 
to the sea, but my father hked the pecuUarity of 
being so intimate with the wild winds and waves, 
so he caused a strong pier to be raised between the 
old castle and the water, on which Mr. Burn has 
contrived securely to perch a terrace walk and an 
appendix to the building. I hope it may turn out 
as long-lived as the Irishman's railway, which was 
to last for ever, and might afterwards be sold for 
old iron. 

Several very handsome new apartments are here, 
from the windows of which I can at this moment 
count a procession of twenty vessels in full sail, 
some of which come so close, they are tacking into 
the very room, while the stormy surge beats up so 
near to where I sit, that it seems to undermine the 
very floor. We had a dispute here once, whether 
the bright blue ocean, sprinkled with white sails, 
was not as beautiful an object, as a green park 
dotted with trees, besides being fully more varied, 
and I wish you were present to award us the supe- 
riority. The roughest and strongest tide on the 
Scotch coast is through the Pentland Frith, running 
at the rate of nine miles an hour. It is what our 
old housekeeper calls " a contramaceous and cantan- 
kerous sea ;" and on the opposite coast of Holbourn 
Head and Orkney, where the time-worn rocks stand 
up as straight as an arrow, the waves are leaping 



THURSO CASTLE. 45 

ten or twenty feet high, becoming so perfectly white 
with foam, they look like apparitions starting out of 
the water, and vanishing again, while the vessels 
flitting silently and tracklessly along, like wreaths 
of mist at the horizon, are now and tlien lighted up 
by a brilliant gleam of sunshine shed upon the 
water, as if a path of glory were stretched across, 
which it would be a long day's journey to pass 
over. 

On the beach of Thurso may now be seen the 
hulk of a ship wrecked under our windows last 
winter, and many tragical accidents have occurred 
at various times to the little herring vessels, foity of 
which pass this way in the evening, dancing on the 
waves so perfectly joyous and safe looking, that last 
night I had actually the courage to wish myself on 
board of one. Nothing can be more like the life of 
a gambler than that of a fisherman. Sometimes 
they make ten pounds at a single haul, and often 
not tenpence in a day. I was particularly sorry for 
one Caithness fisherman this year, who had caught 
sixty crans, each equal to a barrel of herrings, at a 
single draught, worth about jESO, but wishing to 
complete the hundred crans, he tried another suc- 
cessful pull, which sunk his boat, worth .£100, 
carried away his net, and left the unfortunate specu- 
lator with nothing but his life remaining. How 
constantly we are reminded, that " slow^ and sure" 



46 THURSO CASTLE. 

is the best rule in pursuing wealth, and that we 
cmsh the butterfly by snatching at it too eagerly. 

When the present Duke of Sutherland dined 
many years ago at Thurso Castle, our fishermen were 
eager to prove the productiveness of this coast; 
therefore two and twenty different kinds of fish were 
placed on table at once, including salmon, cod, 
turbot, ling, tusk, haddock, and every thing that 
swims, besides an odd fish, called, from its resem- 
blance to the feline species, the cat-fish, and consid- 
ered a great delicacy, though not a very prepossess- 
ing one. The salmon-fishing for this river was then 
let for j£1000 a year. It is recorded in the parish 
books of Thurso, that in 1786, no less than 2560 
salmon were taken out of the river at one sweep of the 
net ! Such is the violence of the tides at sea, when 
the billows get into a rage during stormy weather, 
that cod and ling are, by the force of the waves, 
frequently thrown alive upon the shores at Canisbay. 

It is pleasing, in this remote country, to see so 
universal a confidence in the safety of life and pro- 
perty ! Not a door or a window is fastened at night, 
nor a shutter closed, and no means of defence pro- 
vided, not even so much as a red-hot poker. The 
old alarm-bell is speechless, and Oliver Twist might 
be thrust into the butler's pantry at any hour of the 
night or day, without danger or diflficulty. No pro- 
vision being made in Scotland for the maintenance 



THURSO CASTLE. 47 

and confinement of insane persons, an old woman 
used, when I was here last, to haimt this house, 
causing great annoyance to its inhabitants, by con- 
cealing herself under the beds, or in the closets. A 
lady on one occasion, hearing the drawers in her 
dressing-room opening and shutting most unaccount- 
ably, as it appeared, of their own accord, hurried in 
to ascertain the cause, and found this poor maniac 
nearly undressed, and shaking out all her gowns to 
select the one she liked best for herself. This im- 
fortunate creature on another occasion stole up to 
the top of a turret, where the maids were assembled, 
locked up the whole establishment, and threw the 
key into Thurso river, intending to keep them in 
perpetual imprisonment ; and thus no hour of the 
night or day was secure from her incursions, some- 
times in anger and sometimes in jest. These two 
states of mind border very closely on each other, in 
cases of derangement, of which I know one very 
curious instance. When the Duchess of — — first 
showed symptoms of insanity, she was sitting with 
our friend Lady at dinner tete-a-tete, appa- 
rently in great spirits and good himiour, during which 
she occasionally made little pellets of bread, and 
fiUipped them across the table at her companion^ 
who at length took up the jest, and did likewise, on 
observing which, the Duchess instantly started up 
with flaming eyes, seized the carving-knife, and 



48 THUESO CASTLE. 

hurried furiously toward her companion. Lady 

fled for her hfe, and she used to make her auditors 
tremble when describing her flight through the long 

narrow passages of Castle, and how she saw the 

tall figure of the Duchess in a white dress, striding 
along and brandishing the knife in her hands. For- 
tunately Lady reached a distant door, and 

locked herself up, but there she remained in a state 
of siege for several hours before the servants came 
to her protection. The Duchess remained ever 
afterwards in close confinement, but no salutary 
restraint is laid on our visiter from Thurso, who was 
still alive on my arrival, but fortunately did not 
hear of our being come in time to leave her card 
for us. 

In the old castle some years ago, we had an 
aged housekeeper, who claimed the gift of second- 
sight j and when walking one evening near the shore 
of Thurso, she suddenly gave a startling scream, and 
told the people near her that a boat had been upset 
on the bar of the river ; naming three men who were 
drowned, and one that she saw swimming to land. 
The friends who accompanied her perceived nothing 
of this, and laughed at her ; but next evening, about 
the same hour, the boat she had described actually 
was lost there, and all the three fishermen she had 
named perished. How truly it has been remarked, 
that " the veil which conceals futurity was woven 



SCRABSTER CASTLE. 49 

Ly the hand of mercy." This old housekeeper 
insisted, also, for the honour of Thurso Castle, that 
one room was haunted, though I never could exactly 
ascertain who had been muidered there, nor in what 
shape the apparition might be expected. She 
always gave an impressively superstitious shake of 
the head when speaking of this apartment, saying, 
that once she had attempted to pass a night in it, but 
what took place must never be told ; only, on that 
memorable occasion, it was well known, that, after 
an hour or two, she hastily vacated her position, and 
would never return there alone after dusk. A gen- 
tleman hearing these rumours, insisted once, when 
visiting at Thm'so Castle, on occupying this room, 
and- came down to breakfast next morning with a 
large black patch on his forehead, gravely protest- 
ing to the old woman, when she waylaid him in 
the passage, that the ghost had taken him out of bed 
in the middle of the night, and tossed him three times 
up to the roof of the room, till he was nearly killed, 
adding, that he never would sleep there again, a 
resolution very easily adhered to, as he was then 
leaving the country for good. 

This morning we walked to inspect Her Majesty's 
Royal Castle of Scrabster. My father was the 
hereditary high Constable there ; but it is to be 
hoped no probability exists of a Royal visit, as the 
accommodation would be somewhat deficient — there 
5 



50 THURSO. 

being excellent grazing for a single sheep in the 
only apartment of which any remains are visible, 
and the small fragment of wall looks as if it could 
be thrown over with your little finger. Here, in 
former times a Bishop of Caithness was murdered. 
The people in those days not being allowed a veto, 
took the law into their own hands, and, with a degree 
of cruelty which a New Zealander would be ashamed 
of, thrust him alive into a caldron, and boiled him 
to death. It was perhaps in allusion to this tragical 
story, that when your cousin dined with the Lord 
High Commissioner, expecting to meet nobody but 
clergymen in black, and saw, instead, only officers in 
scarlet, he suddenly exclaimed, " You have boiled 
all the ministers!" ' 

The new church at Thurso, the chief expense 
of building which, in a very superior style of archi- 
tecture, was incurred by my father, is quite a little 
cathedral, being the handsomest edifice north of 
Inverness, partly formed of a very hard stone im- 
ported from Morayshire. In the gallery here, the 
congregation resembles in dress and appearance what 
you might expect to see at any fashionable church in 
London, with bonnets a Id Carsan, scarcely a week 
old, from Paris or London. Women in the lower 
orders all wear clean white caps, or " mutches,'' as 
they are called, and large blue cloaks, like bathing- 
dresses, which hide all deficiencies, and give to their 



THURSO. 51 

appearance an air of grave respectability. The ex- 
pression of their countenance exhibits more than 
common acuteness ; and one group of men in the 
lower classes reminded me of Raphael's cartoon, re- 
presenting Paul preaching to the philosophers at 
Athens, their countenances wore so criticizing an 
aspect of dubious -approbation, apparently more in- 
tent on discovering the preacher's fault than their 
own. One aged female, most conspicuously atten- 
tive, at last pulled the hood of her cloak entirely 
over her face, and seemed wrapped in meditation ; 
but I missed an old woman of former days, who al- 
ways listened to the sermon on account of our 
fa'mily rather than on her own, and frequently held 
up her finger to our pew when any thing was said 
on the danger of riches and prosperity, or on the evils 
of " Greek learning and Latin philosophy," a favour- 
ite subject of declamation with the late incumbent 
of this parish. Opposite to his pulpit, in those days, 
sat a learned English scholar and skilful physician, 
Dr. Torrens, for whom my father had obtained an 
Excise appointment here, that he might be induced 
by the emolmnent to settle and practise in so remote 
a district. An irresistible smile often stole over his 
intelligent features when hearing the new views of 
history, chronology, and the classics, then promul- 
gated by a clergyman who had been appointed at 
the earnest request of the parishioners. Having, on 



52 THURSO. 

one occasion, allowed a young stranger to preach 
for him, our parish minister was observed to be 
restless and uneasy till the sermon was concluded, 
and stopped the congregation, when about to dis- 
perse, by standing up in his own pew, and saying, 
" My friends ! you have this morning heard enough 
about the law, let me give you a little of the 
gospel 1" 

On another occasion he argued at great length 
with an antagonist, as learned in divinity, and more 
skilful in argument than himself, but after retiring 
apparently confuted, he gave out, on the following 
Sunday, a text suitable to the previous discussion, 
and then supposed a dialogue between a Pharisee 
and a Christian, wherein his opponent's reasoning 
appeared to considerable disadvantage, while his 
own replies were of course finally successful. 

My late father, who valued what he possessed 
only in proportion as it might benefit others, trans- 
ferred the patronage of this parish, when it became 
vacant, a second time to the inhabitants of Thurso, 
allowing them again the free choice of their own 
pastor, and in the present instance they have been 
extremely fortunate. The first candidate who ap- 
peared, Mr. Taylor, after delivering one very elo- 
quent sermon, was elected almost by acclamation ! 
I accompanied my father out of church on that Sun- 
day, when we were surrounded by a crowd in 



THURSO. 53 

perfect transports with what had been preached, 
and their unanimous presentation was instantly 
cordially acceded to. My father felt delighted to 
be so well out of " the scrape," as he considered it, 
having been apprehensive of serious differences ; 
but next morning a deputation of the parishioners 
called at Thurso Castle to say, that upon further 
consideration, they began to fear the election had 
been rashly made, and it was thought desirable to 
hear more candidates. Foreseeing the anarchy and 
confusion this would occasion, my father replied that 
the congregation must abide by their original deci- 
sion. They accordingly did so, which the fifteen 
hundred patrons at Thurso have never since had any 
reasonable cause to regret. 

Mr. Burn, the dissenting clergyman here, has 
adopted an excellent plan to discourage backbiting 
among his congregation. The moment any indivi- 
dual begins gossiping out a story to the disparage- 
ment of another, he gravely produces pen, ink, and 
paper, desiring his visiter to write down all the parti- 
culars, as they must be brought before the session. 
Having repeatedly insinuated this threat, a panic has 
been spread among informers and scandal-mongers, 
so that no one ventures to say a word of his neigh- 
bour which might not be printed. Besides the advan- 
tage of checking ill-nature, this expedient will in- 
crease his own efficiency, by proving his unwilling- 



54 THURSO. 

ness to take up any evil report against members of 
the congregation ; moreover it seems a most judi- 
cious remark of Mrs. Fry's, that in addressing sinners, 
it is always best to remain ignorant of their peculiar 
failings, or the admonitions of a preacher become 
inevitably too personal. Rowland Hill used to say, 
that every sermon should have three R's in it. 
Ruin by the fall, — ^Redemption by Christ, — Regene- 
ration by the Holy Spirit, — and if to these be added 
an earnest and affectionate application of gospel 
truth, to the hearts and minds of a congregation, no 
personal animadversions could improve the effect ; 
yet I have known more than one preacher make 
very marked allusion to individuals when present, 
and an instance was pointed out to me once in Eng- 
land, where a nobleman of perfectly unimpeachable 
moral character had been literally preached out of 
his own pew. Those who are ambassadors should 
surely be careful that no private feelings of their 
own interfere with the due delivery of their message, 
but remember that they represent a Lawgiver, who 
summons all, without exception, to come and hear 
the words of eternal life ; that the very presence of 
any individual in church indicates a certain degree 
of obedience, which ought to be encouraged, and 
that those who are not against us are for us. Unless, 
therefore, an open breach be committed of any 
known commandment, or an obvious desecration of 



THURSO. 55 

the Sabbath, all should assemble in church on the 
same common ground of being sinners in need of 
salvation, but the pulpit was never intended as a 
place for inquisitorial commentaries on the details of 
private life. 

A stranger who preached last month at Thurso, 
having heard that a charity ball had taken place 
there, fulminated a vehement censure on all those 
who attended. The sacrament being about to take 
place, he said, among other remarks, that " those 
who had gone to the tap-room were unfit for the 
Lord's table," and this being considered in the light 
of a prohibition, several residents who had attended 
the ordinance unremittingly for thirty years were 
thus hindered from appearing. 

In respect to amusements for the young, I can- 
not but advocate the temperate use of those that 
seem innocent, rather than total abstinence, though 
the frantic excess to which they are carried in some 
houses, might make any Christian hesitate in doing 
so, as we are bound solemnly to remember, that 
those things which may be lawful when kept in due 
subordination, are nevertheless not always expedient. 
It has generally appeared to me, that the entire dis- 
use of those relaxations natural to youth, too fre- 
quently leads either to vice, or tO slothful indolence, 
or to hypochondriacal fancies about health. It is 
the excess of all earthly things that is to be avoided. 



56 THURSO. 

and the highest exercise of Christian principle is, 
to enjoy, without abusing, the gifts of Providence. 
Men occasionally drown themselves in water, but 
water is not on that account to be abjured ; and the 
exercise of dancing seems to have no more intrinsic 
evil in it, than running or leaping, if kept in strict 
moderation, and allowed to interfere with no essen- 
tial duty. If we could get over what Lord Dudley 
called the "national insanity" of late hours, so that 
balls were to begin earlier, and end sooner, one of 
the greatest objections to that amusement would be 
obviated. A dance beginning at six, and ending at 
eleven, instead of beginning at eleven, and ending 
at six, might be equally agreeable, and could lead 
to no such dissipation of mind, as is now to be 
lamented in those who enter on the amusements of 
life to an extreme which obliges all rationally dis- 
posed persons to withdraw from them entirely. The 
ball at Thurso led to no excess either in hours or 
expense, but some political estrangement having 
previously taken place between near neighbours and 
old friends, it was thought desirable that they should 
meet on neutral ground, and associate once more on 
terms of cordiality; therefore about forty persons 
assembled, and danced off any feehngs of irritability 
which had existed, believing that in doing so, no 
violation of duty was committed, while a restora- 
tion had thus been made to sociabilit}^ and good 



THURSO. 57 

neighbourhood, which it is so desirable always to 
preserve inviolate among Christians, 

If the world had been partitioned into cells, like 
a honey-comb, and each individual's own sphere of 
action limited "wdthin a separate enclosure, none of 
those admonitions respecting our conduct in society, 
so lavishly scattered over the sacred pages, would 
have been recorded ; but the miser who hoards his 
time without spending it well, goes to one extreme, 
while the spendthrift who wastes it on vain and 
heartless amusement, falls into an opposite excess. 
The true medium is foimd in Holy Scripture, where 
social intercourse among Christians is continually 
alluded to, though always in subservience to higher 
and holier duties, with the incessant observance of 
which, neither the pleasures, nor even the affections 
of this life, must ever be allowed to interfere. 

There were two county newspapers published 
till lately in Caithness ; and in the far north, the 
Court circular and the fashions are most assiduously 
studied, for whether her Majesty be pleased to ride 
in Windsor Park, or to drive towards Kew Gardens, 
is fully as much discussed here as in the more im- 
mediate orbit of her royal presence. In Ross-shire, 
I was amused to hear of a book club, where one of 
the farmers ordered the novel called "Almack's," 
being anxious, he said, to ascertain what the quality 
were about ; and throughout the Highlands, every 



58 BARROGILL CASTLE. 

on dit respecting Buckingham Palace travels as 
safely and expeditiously northwards as the last new 
bonnet, being only a little enlarged, and a very little 
more trimmed and embellished, during its progress, 
though still in some degree resembling the original 
pattern. 

Connoiseurs in comfort would find it a perfect 
study to see Barrogill Castle, belonging to the Earl 
of Caithness, Lord Lieutenant of this county.. It is, 
as auctioneers often say, " every way suitable for a 
nobleman of rank," with all the internal elegance 
of a house in London, and all the exterior dignity 
of an ancient Highland residence. Some admirable 
improvements have been recently made by Burn ; 
and the staircase, wliich was formerly outside, as 
high as the drawing-room floor, is now thrown into 
the house, while several windows have been thrown 
out, which were greatly wanted. In those peaceful 
times, when there is no longer any necessity for a 
castle to be fortified, it is pleasing to see the gloomy 
strength of former days exchanged for a more smil- 
ing aspect ; and here we found some first-rate pic- 
tures by the best masters, a haunted apartment, 
abundance of interesting family portraits, and a 
forest of the very best trees that Caitlmess can 
produce. 

apropos of trees, when we went in a gig yes- 
terday to see Castle Hill, belonging to Mr. Traill, 



BARROGILL CASTLE. 59 

the most persevering improver now in the North, I 
was very nearly killed in consequence of our Caith- 
ness horse taking fright at a tree ! He was evi- 
dently imused to the chequered shadow of leaves on 
the ground ; so he started in the well-planted 
approach, pricked his ears, backed, and, when a 
gentle breeze at length caused the branches to flicker 
about, he fairly set off in a panic. If we had en- 
covmtered so terrifying and unusual an object as 
another tree, almost twenty feet high, in any more 
dangerous part of our drive, the consequences would 
probably have been fatal ; but no successor having 
appeared within ten miles, our Caithness quadruped 
had time to compose his nerves, after witnessing so 
extraordinary a phenomenon. 

A celebrated tide runs near Barrogill Castle, 
called "The merry men of Mey," very noisy and 
obstreperous indeed, but no subject of merriment to 
vessels, as they have to go off their track many 
leagues sometimes to avoid the vortex, and, when 
caught, are swept back on a stream, like the rapids 
of a rapid river. This is said to have been the scene 
of Grey's " Fatal Sisters," translated from the Norse 
tongue. 

Now the storm begins to lower, 
(Haste, the loom of Hell prepare.) 
Iron sleet of arrowy shower, 
Hurtles in the darken'd air. 



60 BARROGILL CASTLE. 

When about to leave Caithness, we discovered 
that the only post-chaise in this county had been 
already bespoke to act in the capacity of hearse at 
a funeral, which seemed to me like one of Harle- 
quin's transformations. That this useful vehicle 
might have time to be altered and dressed for the 
melancholy occasion, and that the one only pair of 
post-horses might have leisure to rest, we hastened 
our journey, and with difficulty obtained leave to 
hire it ; so I have at last been actually reduced to 
travel, like Miss Pratt, in a hearse ! How multifa- 
rious are the duties of this old chaise ! — the four 
wheels must be all running off sometimes in differ- 
ent directions ! All the happy pairs in the county 
probably make their wedding excursion in it, if 
they make one at all, — it takes the Doctor to his 
patients, the boys to their school, sportsmen to the 
moors, guests out to dinner, and the dead to their 
last resting-place ! The horses, too, once probably, 
grandees in a well-groomed stable, giving some old 
dowager her daily airing, or sharing the labour of 
a dozen other hunters, are now reduced to be ser- 
vants of all work, summoned at every hour of the 
night or day, on every occasion of business, pleasure, 
profit, or loss, and bound to be always, like soldiers 
when they enlist, " free, able, and willing." 

One of the most amusing stories of smuggling 
I know, took place at Barrogill Castle, when the 



BARROGILL CASTLE. 61 

late Lord Dulfus resided there as guardian to the 
late Earl of Caithness. Having clandestinely im- 
ported sixty hogsheads of claret for his own private 
drinking, Lord Duffus thought it might be unsafe to 
lodge them all in the house; therefore he built 
fifty -eight of them up under so enormous a peat- 
stack, that it became the astonishment and admira- 
tion of the whole neighbourhood. He then carried 
the remaining two hogsheads into Barrogill Gastle, 
and wrote an anonymous information against him- 
self to the excise-officer at Thurso, who hurried 
over immediately to investigate the case. Lord 
DufFus received him as a friend, cordially invited 
him to dinner, whispered confidentially that he could 
give him a capital bottle of claret, and after dinner, 
when the worthy man was nearly half seas over, 
showed him the two hogsheads, and said they were 
scarcely worth seizing, but he hoped his friend 
would return often, as long as they lasted, and share 
the last drop with him; after which they shook 
hands, and exit in mutual good humour. 



JOURNAL 

OF A 

TWO DAYS' RESIDENCE IN SHETLAND, 



FULL, TRUE, AND PARTICULAR ACCOUNT OF THE 

HABITS, MANNERS, AND LANGUAGE OF THE 

NATIVES, THEIR DRESS, APPEARANCE, 

AND CUSTOMS j 



NEW AND ORIGINAL DISCOVERIES RESPECTING THE GEOGRAPHY, 

ASTRONOMY, NATURAL HISTORY, AND GEOLOGICAL 

STRUCTURE OF THOSE ISLANDS ; 

WITH A DETAILED ACCOUNT OF THEIR HISTORY, PAST, 
PRESENT, AND TO COME. 

Dedicated to the Royal Society. 

"A most elaborate and deeply scientific work." — Philosophical Journal. 
'• VVe earnestly recouuuend tins adniirahle voluiae to all readers who wish 

for profound views and erudite research." — SciENTiFiC Akgus. 
"We cannot but wish that Sir Isaac Newton and Sir Joseph Banks had 

lived to see this day !" — Populak Phiiosopher. 



Ask Where's the north'!— at York 'tis on the Tweed— 

In Scolland, at the Orcades, — and there, 

At Greenland, Zenibla, or, I can't tell where. 

My DEAR Cousin, — Every new country is inter- 
esting to visit once, though the real compHment is, 
as you say, to go a second time. I hke to ascertain 
with my own eyes, what is, or is not worth seeing 
in it, — whether it be better or worse than my own — 



SHETLAND. 63 

how people set about being happy there, and how 
they succeed. At one time I expected quite as 
much to visit the moon as the Shetland islands, but 
I have lately indulged a sort of hopeless wish to 
venture on a voyage of discovery towards the ex- 
treme verge of her Majesty's dominions, that I 
might pass the longest day of my hfe in that country 
where two days are turned into one, by having no 
intervenino; nio;ht. 

Islands are troublesome articles to deal with, 
especially as I have not the courage of a butterfly 
by steam, therefore it was a considerable exertion 
the first time I invited myself to go, but after talking- 
it over with myself during some weeks, it became a 
matter of course, that wind and weather permitting, or 
even not permitting ! the experiment should be tried ; 
consequently one cold stormy morning, to my own 
great astonishment, we found ourselves on board 
the Sovereign, a fine, large, well-grown steam-boat, 
which touches at Wick once a week, in full boil, on 
its route from Leith to Lerwick, and picks up all 
those courageous passengers who may have sum- 
moned up resolution and enterprise enough to ven- 
ture almost within sight of the north pole. 

Nearly every gentleman before whom I have 
happened to mention Shetland during the last year 
or two, has long intended to take a glimpse of these 
stormy isles, but while swarms and clouds of travel- 



64 SHETLAND. 

lers are migrating to the most unattainable foreign 
districts, our own northern Archipelago remains un- 
known and unnoticed, wasting its sweets, if it has 
any, on the desert air, and scarcely upon visiting 
terms with a single individual. Pray, bring your 
telescope here some day, and try, as we are doing, 
to get a distant peep of Iceland. 

Travellers are not seen to much advantage in 
steam-boat costume, and it is certainly odd that, 
wherever a crowd is assembled in a morning, they 
all look vulgar ; therefore we glanced round at the 
mob of miscellaneous beings assembled on deck, all 
shivering, in cloaks of every shape, size, and colour, 
little hoping to meet with the very agreeable so- 
ciety which we soon afterwards discovered on board, 
or indeed with any thing that could be called so- 
ciety at all. 

The General Assembly of Scotland having re- 
cently dispersed, we found a ship-load of divines re- 
turning to their congregations in the north, some 
apparently clever and eccentric, some extra-eccen- 
tric, and others pious, learned, and communicative, 
who added all that was in their power, and that 
was a great deal, to the pleasure of our voyage, and 
almost eveiy one of whom gave us most cordial in- 
vitations to their fire-sides and manses in Shetland. 
Mr. Hamilton, the very talented and agreeable in- 
cumbent of Brassay, near Lerwick, became a per^ 



SHETLAND. 65 

feet encyclopedia of information and entertainment 
as long as we continued in the ultra-north, and Mr. 
Watson of North Yell afforded us many curious de- 
tails respecting his parish and people. He officiates 
in two churches, divided by a broad and dangerous 
ferry, where frequently on Sunday six rowers have 
endeavoured in vain to carry him across, but after 
pulling incessantly for three or four hours, and com- 
ing in sight of his church and the assembled con- 
gregation, he has been obliged to relinquish all 
hope of landing, while it was about equally difficult 
to reach the opposite shore. One of Mr. Watson's 
elders, who had to travel eight Shetland miles, a 
very vague measurement, besides crossing a wide 
ferry before getting to church, was so exceedingly 
zealous that never during many years did he once 
miss divine service ! This venerable Christian was 
unfortunately drowned lately while trying to save 
the crew of another boat lost near his own house. 
Mr. Watson says the people of Shetland, in general, 
testify an extreme value for public ordinances, and 
though his parish consists of only eight hundred per- 
sons, he generally averages at the sacrament about 
three hundred and fifty communicants. They are 
all so indigent that the collection at church seldom 
exceeds threepence ! 

The chief or only wealth of Shetland arises from 
the fisheries, and from the manufacture of wool, 
6* 



66 SHETLAND. 

which is of so very superior a quality that stockings 
are knitted by thousands and tens of thousands in 
these islands, at all prices, and are sometimes fine 
enough to be sold for two guineas a pair ! I find 
it registered in the Rev. Mr. Sands' account of his 
own parish Tingwall, near Lerwick, that "formerly 
the stockings of Shetland were sent to Holland, but 
the difference of their value, since they found their 
way to other markets, particularly the English, is 
said to be nearly equal to the land-rent of the coun- 
tiy, and this difference must be ascribed to the pat- 
riotic and benevolent exertions of Sir John Sin- 
clair." During the eighty years of my father's life, 
he published one hundred and six volumes, and 
three hundred and sixty-seven pamphlets, written 
with the one all-prevailing desire to benefit his na- 
tive country, and while he has been called from his 
labours to that rest which remaineth for the people 
of God, it is pleasing in every part of Scotland to 
trace the success of so enterprising and persevering 
a patriot. The universal diffusion of English sheep 
over our native hills, was an era in our national 
history, and has nearly doubled the value of many 
Highland properties, where, owing to ignorance 
and mismanagement, the Scottish wool had become 
so exceedingly deteriorated and scarce, that, on an 
average, four millions of pounds had to be annu- 
ally imported from Spain. In consequence of some 



SHETLAND. ' 67 

adA^antageous discoveries respecting wool, commu- 
nicated by my father to the Highland Society, a 
board of inquiry was instantly formed, of which he 
became chairman, sparing neither time nor expense 
to render it efficient, and presenting to the com- 
mittee a hundred sheep, which he had collected from 
the royal flocks of France, from Spain, Shetland, 
and England, to the latter of which he gave that 
name, now so universally known of " Cheviot 
sheep." He travelled in person to every county 
where the growth of wool was peculiarly successful, 
and at an inn twelve miles from Edinburgh, he gave 
the first sheep-shearing festival which had ever 
taken place in Great Britain, where a multitude of 
persons from all countries sat down to a collation, 
each adorned with pastoral badges and emblems, 
and where one of the amusements consisted in seeing 
wool which had been shorn in the morning, spun, 
dyed, wove, and formed into a coat during a single 
day. 

Nothins: in D'Israeli's Curiosities of Literature 
can be more singular than the origin, progress, and 
termination of my father's single-handed efforts to 
collect the Statistical Account of Scotland, a work 
for which no precedent existed in the world, as 
even the veiy word " Statistics" was invented by 
himself, a fact recorded in the old contemporaiy 
edition of Walker's Dictionaiy, who remarks that 



68 SHETLAND. 

no name had previously existed for a science now so 
generally understood. To anatomize the society, 
population, history, manufactures, and antiquities of 
a great nation, required enterprise, perseverance, 
and even enthusiasm ; but unintimidated by obsta- 
cles, he addressed separate letters to one thousand 
clergymen, suggesting his plan and requesting their 
aid. To some of the more indolent he wrote three- 
and-twenty times, besides applying to their patrons 
and friends, to gain their co-operation, and the last 
effort he made to arouse any individual's exertion 
was by forwarding him an epistle written with red 
ink, explaining that this was a final attempt to rouse 
his patriotism. After receiving many thousand let- 
ters, he employed missionaries at liis own expense 
to collect the details of such parishes as were not 
reported by the clergy, and wrote some himself. 
In the course of seven years this arduous work was 
completed, after which the author used his influence 
to obtain for a reward, nothing personal to himself, 
but a grant from government, to the " Society for 
the sons of the clergy," of j£2000, and presented 
besides to that useful institution, the copyright and 
whole pecuniary benefit of his labours. To himself 
and his family remained only the gratification of 
witnessing his entire success, and the honour which 
he deserved for so vast and patriotic an undertaking. 
Adam Smith remarks that there are three ways of 



SHETLAND. 69 

pursuing fame. " Those who wish to enjoy celeb- 
rity, whether they deserve it or not, — those who 
seek to deserve, but care not to enjoy it, — and those," 
like my father, " who seek both to deserve and to 
enjoy it." Few ever loved his country more, — few 
ever laboured as perseveringly to serve it, — and few 
ever more deeply valued its approbation. When 
age and infirmity precluded the possibility of new 
exertions, he often looked back on the difficulties so 
laboriously surmounted in preparing the Statistical 
Account of Scotland, with a pleasing consciousness 
of having served his country so essentially. Even 
when verging towards the grave, and turning his 
thoughts to a better world, he heard with satisfaction, 
though not consulted on the subject, that a second 
edition of this great work was in progress. Before 
long, volume after volume appeared, containing no 
meed of praise for his exertions ! no tribute of grati- 
tude for his liberality ! no mention even of his name ! 
A great edifice had been raised, and the original 
architect, who planned the whole, incurred the ex- 
pense, engaged the artisans, obtained a reward for 
their labours, and generously claimed no recompense 
for himself, was now entirely overlooked, but never- 
theless could he have foreseen the end from the be- 
ginning, his strong impulse to do good as he had 
opportunity, would still have prevailed. From that 
period, my father calmly but indignantly ceased to 



70 SHETLAND. 

mention a subject once the soui'ce of so much plea- 
sure, and latterly we avoided any allusion to it. In 
the volume w^hich came out immediately after my 
father's decease, a cold, late, and business-like ac- 
knowledgment of his name appeared, but as no 
copy of the new edition is forwarded to his family, 
I did not borrow one to peruse it. The heart that 
should have been cheered, and the eye that should 
have been brightened by that page, w^ere at rest for 
ever, and even if ample justice had been awarded, 
the praise that was due could have mattered little 
then to him who was beyond its reach, or to us who 
valued it only for his sake. 

The Shetland accent is pecuharly pleasing, but 
still retains so strong a tinge of Norse, that the 
somewhat foreign pronunciation led me to imagine 
several of the gentlemen who spoke to us, were 
either Frenchmen, Danes, or even Irish, much more 
than Scotchmen. A rumour had reached us before 
embarking in the steam-boat, that a great man was 
on board ! No less a personage than the Danish 
governor of the Feroe Islands, son ofthe prime min- 
ister of Denmark ! His father had been ambassador 
from that Court to England, a man of great abilities 
and intelligence, who had educated our compagnon 
de voyage with great care, and bestowed on him 
this very inadequate appointment, merely from a 
desire to improve that frozen region of ice-bergs 
and whales. 



SHETLAND. 71 

The governor of Feroe, Mr. Ployen, had with 
great difficulty obtained permission from his own 
rulers to travel in Scotland, and had brought a 
large detachment of his people to study agriculture, 
in what region of the earth do you suppose ? In 
Shetland ! ! There the spade husbandry, wooden 
harrows, stone querns, and little hand-mills, are a 
centui-y, at least, behind East Lothian, and the 
world in general ! Miss Edgeworth's Farmer Good- 
enough, would have seen little cause to complain 
of modern innovations, where Captain Hay's pa- 
tent plough has never yet been heard of, and several 
genuine Scandinavian implements of husbandry are 
still in fashion, but " parmi les aveugles, un borgne 
est roi /^ and the Shetlanders may, perhaps, be 
some steps in advance of their more northern neigh- 
bours. 

Having no small curiosity to see Mr. Ployen and 
suite, we hastened down to dinner, more eagerly 
desirous to satisfy our cm-iosity than our appetite, 
and I was considerably entertained to see the Cap- 
tain ceremoniously place his Danish guest on his 
right hand, and treat him, during the banquet, as 
nearly with royal honours, as the small cabin of our 
floating palace could admit, while the governor 
himself seemed exceedingly bored at exciting so 
much notice. 

I have seldom encountered a more entertaining. 



72 SHETLAND. 

frank, well informed foreigner, than Mr. Ployen, a 
tall, fair, and very dignified looking personage, who 
spoke English as well as any native,— or better, — 
and who seemed anxious to make the conversation 
a means of giving and receiving as much informa- 
tion as possible. When he sketched a lively graphic 
description of his own desolate regions at Feroe, I 
began to fancy it would be quite impossible ever to 
get far enough north, as Shetland seemed a mere 
every-day affair in comparison of the immeasurable 
precipices now described, when he laughingly con- 
cluded his picture by saying, that we estimated the 
height of our shore by hundreds of feet, and he by 
thousands ! I must some day explore a north-west 
passage for myself, and measure the rocks of Feroe. 
Sumburgh-head, in Shetland, rises about eight 
hundred feet abruptly out of the ocean, and at North 
Yell, the iron-bound coast, stretching forty miles 
along the shore, forms a gigantic barrier of tower- 
ing rocks, as if the angry, ceaseless billows of the 
great Atlantic had worn down, and bent the very 
earth by their weight. What a mere insect man 
appears in such scenes ; but here would be a place 
for geologists to chip down the world with their 
hammers, and to frame half-a-dozen theories, or to 
draw from the rocks themselves a history of their 
origin. In some parts of Scotland, the characters 
of estates were anciently carved in Gaelic on the 



SHETLAND. 73 

rocks, and here would have been abundant space 
for such dociunents. A person ignorant of the law 
once mentioned, that a gentleman had proved his 
claim to an estate, and on being asked in what 
way, confidently replied, "He has carved it on 
stone!" 

While sitting at dinner in the cabin, we heard 
many interesting anecdotes of the dangers encoun- 
tered by fowlers in scaling the rocks of Shetland 
and Feroe, where fatal accidents are so frequent, 
that the people sometimes say to each other, " Your 
grandfather fell, your father fell, and you must fol- 
low too." Others boast over their companions, say- 
ing, " Your father died in his bed, but mine went 
off like a man !" 

The common mode of rifling the birds' nest is, 
for the fowlers to suspend themselves over a beet- 
ling cliff of many hundred feet, merely by a single 
rope forty or fifty fathoms long, which is so fretted 
and hacked by the sharp edges of the rock, that it 
occasionally breaks, precipitating the unfortunate 
adventurer firom so great a height, that the body, 
when found, sometimes retains scarcely a vestige of 
ever having been human. From habit, they be- 
come so reckless of danger, however, that frequently 
more than one descends by the same rope, though I 
scarcely know any occasion when it would seem 
more desirable to have two strings to our bow. 
7 



74 SHETLAND. 

Captain Philips mentioned, that some time since, 
a father and two sons were suspended in this way 
over a deep chasm, when the youth who hung up- 
permost hastily told his brother that the rope was 
breaking, therefore it could no longer support them 
all, desiring him to cut off the low^er end, on which 
their father depended. The young man indignantly 
refused thus to consign his father to death, upon 
which his brother, without another moment's hesi- 
tation, divided the rope below himself, precipitating 
his father and brother both to instant destruction ! 
We had an eager discussion, after hearing this 
shocking story, whether it was possible to have 
acted better than the amiable son who fell a sacri- 
fice to duty and affection, during which Captain 
Philips suggested, that he might have leaped off the 
rope, and left his father to be preserved ! This was 
a flight of generosity beyond the imagination of any 
one else, and we received it with great approbation. 
Indeed, w^e could scarcely have applauded him more, 
if.the worthy Captain had actually taken the leap 
h^oself. 

A succession of similar stories ensued, all tend- 
in ^ to prove that the Shetland rockmen are fit to be 
rr e-dancers at Astley's ; but nothing interested me 
mo^e than hearing a description of the cradle at 
Noss. It was formed by a celebrated chmber from 
the Isle of Fowlar, who heard, that off the point at 



SHETLAND. 75 

Noss, a detached perpendicular pillar stood one 
hundred and sixty feet high, and being perfectly 
aloof from the shore, was considered quite inaccessi- 
ble. Determined to do the impossible, and establish 
his fame for pre-eminence on the rocks, besides 
being bribed with the promise of a cow if successful, 
he with great difficulty scrambled from a boat to the 
summit of this lofty point, where he fixed a pulley, 
and suspended a basket, which could be drawn 
across to the mainland, carrying sheep or men in 
comparative safety over a chasm sixty yards wide, 
and four hundred feet deep. Fancy yourself per- 
forming an excursion, in this way, between the top 
of St Paul's and the monument : but that is not 
half high enough ! Where shall we place you 
then 1 Suppose yourself swinging in an arm chair 
between the summit of Snowdon, and the peak of 
Cader Idris ! After this curious enterprise had been 
successfully achieved, the poor man forgetting how 
much more difficult it is to go safely down than to 
ascend a precipice, unfortunately did not take ad- 
vantage of his own spider -like bridge, but in trvirig 
to ^regain the boat, his foot slipped, and he ^ell 
headlong down, where his body was never q^en 
again ! a hero dying in the arms of victory. 

The Governor mentioned, that lately at Fc^e, 
a fowler descended safely by the usual conveyance 
of a rope, but when about to be drawn up again, 



76 SHETLAND. 

owing to some awkward entanglement, he arrived 
at the surface with his feet upwards. His alarmed 
friends thought his head had been cut off, and felt 
so relieved to discover their mistake, that the whole 
party burst into a simultaneous peal of laughter, 
while the adventurer was very glad he had any face 
to put on the matter at all, and laughed heartily 
also. 

The upper part of these cliffs generally over- 
hangs the base ; therefore the rockmen, when desi- 
rous to obtain -a footing, are obliged to swing them- 
selves many yards out in the air, that the re-action 
may shoot them back in contact with the precipice, 
when they instantly cling to any little projection 
that offers, and, after landing on it, anchor the end 
of their rope to a stone, and proceed with a small 
hand-net, stretched on a hoop, to spoon the eggs out 
of their nests, depositing them carefully in a sack 
which they carry behind ; and when the unlucky 
bird sees her loss inevitable, by a curious instinct 
she often pushes out the egg to save herself. An 
enterprising fowler, standing on a projection once, 
with a sheer precipice both above and below him 
of several hundred feet, observed the end of his rope 
become suddenly disengaged from its moorings, and 
s^^^ng like a pendulum far into the distant space. If 
it escaped entirely away, he knew that death, either 
by a fall, or by the slower and more dreadful pro- 



SHETLA?«). 77 

cess of starvation, must become inevitable ; there- 
fore, perceiving that the rope, before it finally set- 
tled, would swing once more almost within his grasp, 
he earnestly watched the moment of its return, made 
a desperate spiing forward in the air, clutched it in 
his hand, and was saved. 

Travellers are in a perplexing predicament when 
relating what they see or hear, because every thing 
is either so common-place as to be scarcely worth 
mentioning, or so extraordinary, as to be quite be- 
yond belief; and your credulity will take leave of 
me altogether if I continue on my tight-rope any 
longer. I shall merely describe one thing which 
amused and astonished me exceedingly. Our steam- 
boat passed near Coppensha, one of the Orkneys, 
which presents a gigantic barricade of rocks, inhab- 
ited by millions of birds, which we saw, though I 
had not time to count them, sitting in rows like 
charity children, with black heads and white tippets, 
ranged along every crevice in the cliffs. Captain 
Philips caused several guns to be fired, when an 
uproarious noise ensued, which can be compared to 
nothing but the hurraing of a whole army. It 
seemed like a long loud roar, accompanied by the 
echoing and re-echoing of guns, — a whole platoon 
of cannon, till at length I fancied that the commotion 
could scarcely have been more deafening from the 
mob and artillery of London on the day of Her 



78 SHETLAND. 

Majesty's coronation. Above, below, and around, 
the sea, air, and rocks seemed all one living mass of 
birds, screaming at the full pitch of their voices, 
rushing through the air, careering to the very clouds, 
flickering in circles over-head, zig-zagging all 
round us, and then dropping like a shower into the 
ocean. 

Nothing in the way of animal life ever amazed 
me so much ! I wonder if any one on earth can 
imagine it ? — no ! certainly not ! seeing is believing, 
and nothing else will help you. When I thought 
how many fish must be necessary to feed so count- 
less a colony of feathered mariners, the miracle 
seemed greater still. The poor sillocks and herrings 
must have a sad time of it ! Shetland is the metro- 
polis of birds, and the greatest ornithologist might 
weary himself here. In this cloud of living creatures 
are included kitty-wakes, cormorants, sea-larks, 
gulls, white and black scarfs, sea-parrots, maws, 
and a species of puffin, commonly called lyres, or, 
as the natives pronounce them, " lawyers !" It 
would occasion rather a sensation in the Parliament 
House to hear how coolly the Shetlanders mention 
having shot a brace of lawyers in a morning ! We 
could ill afford them a battu in Edinbursfh ! 

Seals and otters abound on this coast, but I did 
not observe a single mermaid, though these are the 
bays where Sir Joseph Banks advised my father to 



SHETLAND. 79 

catch them, using for bait, a looking-glass and 
comb ! Many interesting and " authentic !" stories 
are told here of mermen and merwomen, which 
would amuse you exceedingly, therefore, pray mus- 
ter up a considerable stock of credulity, and listen. 
Far below the region of fishes, these merladies and 
gentlemen, who are of supernatm-al beauty, exist in 
an atmosphere of their own, in which they seem 
able to live with very tolerable comfort in coral 
palaces, and sleeping on beds of oysters. When de- 
sirous to pay us a visit in the upper regions, they have 
power to enter the skin of any amphibious animal, 
and shoot through the water, but no son or daugh- 
ter of the ocean can borrow more than one sea- 
dress of this kind for his own particular use, there- 
fore, if the garb should be mislaid on our shores, he 
never can return to his submarine country and 
friends. A Shetlander once having found an empty 
seal skin on the shore, took it home and kept it in 
his possession. Soon after, he met the most lovely- 
being who ever stepped on the earth, wringing her 
hands with distress, and loudly lamenting that hav- 
ing lost her sea-dress, she must remain for ever on 
the earth. The Shetlander having fallen in love at 
first sight, said not a syllable about finding this pre- 
cious treasure, but made his proposals, and offered to 
take her for better or for worse, as his future wife ! 
The merlady, though not, as we know, much a 



80 SHETLAND. 

woman of the world, veiy prudently accepted this 
offer ! I never heard what the settlements were, 
but they lived very happily for some years, till one 
day, when the green-haired bride unexpectedly dis- 
covered her own long-lost seal skin, and instantly 
putting it on, she took a hasty farewell of every 
body, and ran towards the shore. Her husband flew 
out in pursuit of her, but in vain ! She sprung from 
point to point, and from rock to rock, till at length 
bounding into the ocean, she disappeared for ever, 
leaving the worthy man, her husband, perfectly 
planet-struck and inconsolable on the shore ! 

In some of those islands, the rent is paid, as it is 
also at St. Kilda, in feathers, which are sold for 
ninepence per pound ; and one of my father's Caith- 
ness farms had a clause in the lease, entitling him 
to a pepper-corn rent of 1000 sea-birds' eggs every 
year, though he never levied the tax. 

The governor of Feroe mentioned, that, during 
their fishing-season, his coast is so surrounded by 
shoals of bottle-nosed whales, that the seamen go 
out in a long array of boats, and drive them, like 
flocks of sheep, towards the shore. When this cav- 
alcade approaches land, a dreadful scene of carnage 
ensues, while the terrified monsters become infuri- 
ated, and, in attempting to escape, they frequently 
upset one or two boats. The men become nearly 
frantic with excitement on these occasions, the 



KIRKWALL. 81 

wounded animals bellow with pain, the ocean is 
dyed red with blood, and troops of sea-gulls, which 
always attend on these occasions, become so stained 
with gore, that, before taking wing to depart, they 
appear to be birds of scarlet plumage. 

Escorted in great state by the governor of Feroe 

and suite, A and I landed at Kirkwall, Captain 

Philips having granted us leave of absence for an 
hour and three quarters, but his one hour shrunk 
into a miserably short one, and his three quarters 
became nothing at all, as we were soon peremp- 
torily summoned back on the shortest notice, by an 
arbitrary little bell, rung most impatiently before 
one-half our curiosity had been gratified. Travel- 
lers who rashly apprentice themselves to a steam- 
boat for a certain number of days, must expect less 
attention to the picturesque than to the station most 
convenient for taking in coals, or letting out pas- 
sengers, as we experienced on this lamentable oc- 
casion. 

The very ancient and interesting cathedral of 
Kirkwall, dedicated to St. Magnus, was begun 
seven centuries ago, by Ronald, Earl of Orkney. 
It is the most perfectly preserved in Scotland, and 
looks almost as large as the whole city put together. 
You would fancy it an arrival from Brobdignag 
among the Liliputian buildings around, and the 
whole structure would do honour to any Episcopal 



82 KIRKWALL. 

diocese in England, being in truth a sort of country 
cousin to Worcester Cathedral, as they are in a sim- 
ilar style of architecture, though the masonry of 
Kirkwall is coarser, and the plan scarcely so digni- 
fied. It is wonderful that the poor inhabitants, who 
could scarcely rear dwellings for themselves, should 
produce so magnificent a pile for Divine worship ! 
The roof is quite entire, but the lofty steeple was 
most unfortunately struck down by lightning several 
years ago, virhich causes a sad blank in the coup 
d'oeil at first, though much architectural beauty still 
remains. The long and solemn ranges of pillars 
and cloisters inside have at length become so per- 
fectly green with damp, that they appear like some 
wonderful cave, over which the sea had broken for 
ages. Indeed the celebrated cave at Flamborough- 
head is not very unlike it, and certainly neither 
more mouldy, nor more weather-stained. 

We entered this hoary pile with feelings of pro- 
found reverence and admiration, preparing our 
minds for a solemn remembrance of the great men 
and the eloquent divines who once frequented those 
sacred walls, generation after generation, many of 
whom lie side by side in the last long sleep of death. 
The first tomb-stone which caught my attention was 
exceedingly handsome, exhibiting a coat-of-arms 
on one side, and bearing a long panegyrical inscrip- 
tion on the other, While gazing at this impressive 



KIRKWALL. 83'" 

memento with all that profound respect due to the 
illustrious dead, our guide gravely informed us that 
this tablet was raised in honour of the late dancing- 
master at Kirkwall ! 

Not far off, lie the venerated remains of our 
illustrious Scottish historian, Laing, whose memory 
is deserving of the utmost reverence and admiration 
from all his countrymen; and a few steps distant 
we were shown a curious tomb placed under a low 
hea^y stone arch, like an ancient fire-place, which 
was built in this peculiar form by special desire of 
the person underneath, because an enemy had once 
threatened to dance on his grave. 

We discovered the tombs of Bishops Murray, 
Stewart, and a whole conclave of reverend fathers, 
their names, arms, and mitres carved in stone, and 
surmounted by inscriptions, some too long to be 
read, and others with a great deal to say which had 
become totally illegible, though none were, I trust, 
what Pope calls " sepulchral lies, our holy w^alls to 
grace." The child we are told of, who saw nothing 
in a church but laudatory inscriptions, made a most 
natural mistake when he asked, " where all the bad 
people were buried ?" 

I was astonished at the trouble taken by our for- 
eign friend, Mr. Ployen, to decipher every epitaph 
in which there appeared generally more sentiment 
than feeling ; but he seemed to have a remarkable 



84 KIRKWALL. 

knowledge of heraldry, and being the fii'st Dane 
who had recently invaded Scotland, he was evi- 
dently anxious to claim for his country some credit 
in the founding of this Cathedral. With the patri- 
otic hope of producing evidence to prove its Danish 
origin, he left not a crevice unexplored, so that 
even a rat could scarcely have enjoyed its hole in 
peace, but all in vain, — the Cathedral of Kirkwall 
gave no sign ! 

Mr. Ployen did not relish our saying, that the 
Orkneys had been ceded to Scotland by the Danes, 
but interrupted our discussion with a deprecating 
bow and shrug, saying they were only mortgaged 
for a small sum, and the money had since been ten- 
dered by his government three times without suc- 
cess. Rather an aw^kward transaction if true. 

In the choir of this cathedral. Divine ser\ice is 
yet performed, but the whole ancient edifice is soon 
to be put on the retired list, and superseded by a 
fine, vulgar, modern upstart, which is in full pro- 
gress here. All that green baize and brass nails 
can do is done, to look handsome, but I greatly pre- 
fer the green mould and yellow rust of the old 
school, and really would not grudge the good peo- 
ple of Kirkwall a few coughs and rheumatisms 
rather than let them desert this fine old fabric, 
which has ornamented the world so long. 

Mr. Ployen expressed much surprise on seeing 



KIRKWALL. 85 

our square pews at church, with a table m the cen- 
tre, saying it gave him the idea of our intending to 
play at whist. No separation of seats was made 
long ago in Scotland, and none is allowed now in 
Denmark, where so strict an equality is preserved 
in the house of God, that on one occasion a common 
soldier found himself accidentally placed next to 
the king. He hastily started up, but his majesty 
stopped him, saying, " Stay, friend ! remember there 
is no distinction here !" 

The inhabitants of Kirkwall are intended never 
to keep carriages, seeing a staircase runs across 
their principal or only street, which is entirely 
paved with large flags, and so narrow, that opposite 
neighbours might almost shake hands from their 
respective windows. Upwards of four thousand 
women are employed in plaiting straw for bonnets 
at Orkney, and the annual value of what they make 
is averaged at j£30,000. Gii-ls of eight years old, 
and even the very oldest men, can earn a Uvelihood 
by this means ; and during the long winter even- 
ings, little sociable parties of ten or twelve meet at 
each other's houses, and work together, beguiling 
the hours mth a snug gossip, and a cup of bohea. 

The Castle of Orkney shelters one or two plane 

trees cowering within the walls, and hanging out a 

leaf or two, here and there, to prove that they are 

alive, which is almost a questionable fact, even with 

8 



86 KIRKWALL. 

those few witnesses to attest it, and the country 
round seemed clothed in sackcloth. The bishop's 
" manse" has been very handsome in its day, though 
now worn to rags, and the market place is neat and 
extensive. 

You may search round the world, and find 
nothing more hopelessly ugly than the Isle of 
Sanda, which Hes so perfectly flat and bare, that it 
might be taken for the whale's back on which 
Sinbad the sailor landed. The ground, from a 
very short distance, becomes quite invisible, there- 
fore the few houses we saw seemed floating on the 
surface of the sea, and the people seemed all walk- 
ing on the water. It gave me a better idea of the 
deluge than any picture I ever saw. 

An alteration was made respecting the light- 
house here some time ago, which produced most 
disastrous consequences. The station formerly was 
at North Ronaldsha, more than three miles off, and 
many foreign ships, consulting old charts, were mis- 
led in their bearings, and totally lost, though such 
events used not to be xmiversally deplored among 
the Shetlanders formerly, when a stranded vessel 
was considered quite as lawful a capture as a 
stranded whale. One of our clerical friends men- 
tioned, that some years ago three brothers sailed 
from Hamburgh in different vessels on the same day, 
and after cruising to various ports without meeting, 



KIRKWALL. 87 

they were all wrecked on the shore of Sanda at the 
same time, and their ships completely lost ! What 
a melancholy rencontre they must have had on this 
desolate and fatal coast ! 

A Danish princess lies interred at our family 
bmying-place in Caithness, who met with her death 
under somewhat similar circumstances. She had 
married the chief of the clan Gunn, who passed 
himself off, at the court of Demnark, for being a 
considerably greater man than he really was, and 
when she became desirous at length to see the 
splendid residence he had described himself to pos- 
sess in Scotland, he gallantly insisted on preceding 
her there, to make the most magnificent prepara- 
tions, but no Caleb Balderstone being then on the 
spot, he was put to his wit's end one evening, by 
beholding a fine vessel in the distance, containing 
his bride and her suite in full progress homewards. 
In an agony of consternation, he caused false lights 
to be hung out along the coast, the consequence of 
which was that the ship foundered, and her body, 
richly dressed in jewels, having been washed on 
shore at Clythe, is buried there with all the splendid 
decorations she wore. It was unfortunate for the 
princess, that she did not see some such conclusive 
reason for refusing Mr. Gunn, as Lady Penelope 
Primrose in more modern times, who declined the 
addresses of a gentleman belonging to that clan, 



88 KIRKWALL. 

giving as an excuse that she could not tolerate the 
idea of being called all her hfe " Lady Pen-Gun I" 
Persons afflicted ^vith a name which admits of being 
punned upon, must often wish, in desperation, that 
some friend would leave them an estate, as an ex- 
cuse for changing it. 

Our Danish fellow-traveller was shocked beyond 
expression at this tragical tale, and shrugged his 
shoulders, till they nearly met over his head, on 
hearing the catastrophe. I was amused at the un- 
mitigated censure he bestowed on our country, for 
allowing debtors a sanctuary within the precincts 
of Holyrood Palace, where they enjoy unmolested 
liberty to range through the park and hills around, 
giving splendid entertainments, and receiving com- 
pany, while the poor deluded creditors are in actual 
starvation. As Paul Pry says, " I don't mean to 
hint that there is any thing in it, only it seems odd !" 
and we had very little to urge in defence of national 
custom on this point. Mr. Hamilton mentioned that 
the chief extravagance of his poor parishioners con- 
sists in tea-drinking to the most marvellous excess, 
and that those who are starving would rather pur- 
chase tea than bread. You never heard of tee-total- 
lers on so large a scale ! the indulgence amounts 
almost to an absolute vice, and the Shetlanders must 
positively establish a toast-and-water society im- 
mediately. About je25j000 worth of bohea is an- 



KIRKWALL. 89 

nually entered at the custom-house in Lerwick, be- 
sides which, a great quantity is smuggled by Dutch 
fishing-boats. One poor man in the parish of Bras- 
say, who had the expensive infliction of a tea-drink- 
ing wife, was cheated, by her secretly selling his 
goods to obtain tea ! He was observed once to 
purchase the same peck of meal three times over in 
one week, being always assured that his children 
had eaten it. A Highland laird once remarked, that 
the Scotch peasantry were ruined by forsaking " the 
good old porridge of their ancestors !" 

Mr. Hamilton says, the kindness of all his very 
poor people towards each other is astonishing. Like 
the widow's cruize, their last mouthful is shared 
with those who are more necessitous than themselves, 
and no single individual will ever starve, unless the 
whole population perish together. Poor and des-^ 
titute as most of them are, he deprecated any plan 
of assessment, because it would destroy all those 
feelings of mutual sympathy and independence which 
are the sole remaining comforts they possess. It 
certainly is one of the deepest mysteries in this per^ 
plexing world, what system is best for relieving in- 
digence, because while our almighty Creator has 
ordained, for wise and holy purposes, that the poor 
shall be always on the earth, he has at the same 
time laid a deep responsibility on the rich, to do the 
veiy utmost which liberality and good sense can 
8* 



90 KIRKWALL. 

dictate, to relieve the weight of wo and painful 
endurance laid on our suffering brethren. I beheve 
it would be an act of mercy to sweep from the face 
of the earth most of those large charitable institu- 
tions which encumber it, except such as are for the 
blind and the incurable. If a hospital were insti- 
tuted, where every living being could receive, on 
application, a dish of porridge, a flannel petticoat, 
and a bed, there would probably be an end of all 
exertion in the world. There must be, as a motive 
to industry, the apprehension of that misery, which 
it is nevertheless our business to relieve when it 
comes, by encouraging and teaching lessons of pro- 
vident economy. I know many places at present, 
where industrious women can get no needle-work 
at their own firesides, because they are so completely 
under-sold by large institutions, in which the ex- 
pense of house-rent and coals not being paid by 
indi-vdduals, the work can be done much cheaper. 
If a general distribution of clothes were made to the 
poor, in three days more than half those gratis 
wardrobes would be lodged at the pawnbroker's ; 
and in considering the failings and defects of every 
human scheme for the general advantage we can- 
not but mournfully exclaim in the language of 
Scripture, " Who will show us any good ?" The 
two most eminent philanthropists in Scotland, Dr. 
Chalmei"S and Dr. Alison, are completely opposed 



KIRKWALL. 91 

in opinion respecting the most eligible plan for the 
poor; but while we lament the difficulty of ascer- 
taining what is best, nothing, at the same time, can 
exonerate any Christian from anxiously studying 
this important subject, and conscientiously expend- 
ing time and money, according to his utmost ability, 
and according to the best of a carefully formed 
judgment, on the great Christian object of succour- 
ing those whom our Divine Saviour has so solemnly 
committed to our care, measuring the degree of our 
devotion to Himself by our diligence in " feeding 
the hungry, clothing the naked, and administering 
to the sick ;" yet the great scriptural rule of letting 
charity be so private, that the left hand shall not 
know what the right hand is doing, would forbid 
those great public establishments, which are in many 
instances pernicious to the real interests of those 
whom they are intended to benefit ; and the Bible 
surely does not recognise or inculcate any general 
and arbitrary assessment, which is to be deprecated, 
for the sake of the poor, whom it would degrade and 
demoralize, more than even for the wealthy, on 
whom it would become every year more oppressive 
and severe. 

Mr. Hamilton mentioned, as an instance of the 
generous feelings engendered by sympathy in dis- 
tress, that, during the late scarcity, almost amount- 
ing to a famine, an indigent old woman, ha^ung 



92 KIRKWALL. 

been presented with a boll of meal, divided it 
equally with her starving neighbours. It always 
appears to me, that, in this world, those who have 
real miseries bear them well, and those who have 
none invent some petty grievance to grumble at ; 
for some people endure the pleasures of life less 
cheerfully than others bear its greatest calamities. 
A very indigent girl, not long since, after suffering 
all the saddest privations of poverty, met with an 
unfortunate accident, which made it necessary for 
the doctors to amputate her leg; but when they 
cautiously imparted this frightful prospect, she 
calmly replied, " Then I shall now have a leg the 
less to endure cold from !" 

It was grievous in many places to hear a most 
heart-rending description of what the poor High- 
landers suffered last season, when every thing short 
of actual starvation was uncomplainingly undergone. 
It lowered the value of the property so much to 
have these circumstances known, that in some 
places where estates were to be sold, the proprietor 
forbid any application on behalf of his tenantry to 
the relief Committee, in consequence of which, the 
funds, raised by a liberal subscription, were, I fear, 
very unequally distributed. 

Another destitution, of yet greater importance, is 
deeply deplored in Scotland, and became a subject 
of serious discussion among the clergy as we ap- 



FAIR ISLE. 93 

proached Fair Isle, a bright green spot, like an 
emerald on the wide ocean. This place is quite a 
little world in itself, covered with grass of a most 
vivid and luxuriant verdure, but distant twenty- 
four miles from the nearest shore, being exactly 
half-way between Orkney and Shetland, — and there 
four hundred of our countrymen live and die with- 
out the instructions or consolations of any clergy- 
man. The parish to which they belong lies in a 
far distant island, whence Mr. Thomson, the incum- 
bent, used to visit them once in a season, to per- 
form all the marriages and christenings ; but now, 
being eighty years of age, he is unable to encoun- 
ter the fatigue of such a voy^age ; and it was men- 
tioned, that the last time a clergyman arrived there, 
several of the children requiring to be christened 
were quite old and uninstructed, while one boy, 
when the service was performed on himself, swore 
most violently. The anxiety of these neglected 
people for ministerial teaching is so extreme, that 
they will laboriously row their boat any distance to 
bring a preacher, and only ask their expenses for 
taking him away, as it is considered ample remu- 
neration for a voyage of fifty miles to hear a single 
sermon ; and Mr. Watson of North Yell told us, 
that once, when detained accidentally beyond Sun- 
day the whole population crowded round him to 
hear the gospel, and listened with fervent attention. 



94 FAIR ISLE. 

Many rich people disapprove loudly of foreign 
missions, confidently saying, " let charity begin at 
home j" and for them here is a noble opportunity. 
Neighbours and brethren of our own, who have lit- 
tle to enjoy here, and no one to tell them of happi- 
ness hereafter, suffer the most urgent want, while a 
small subscription might supply the moderate wishes 
of some resident clergyman, who would be wel- 
comed with eager and grateful delight, bringing 
them the knowledge which they seem all to be 
thirsting for. 

' The deputations sent by charitable societies 
travel sometimes now at a most preposterous ex- 
pense. A lady assured me that once a barouch 
and four arrived at her house in the Highlands, con- 
taining four gentlemen, who requested leave to see 
her pictures, and mentioned that they were a com- 
mittee of clergymen firom England, collecting funds 
for some religious object. Next day her old poul- 
try-woman found several tracts scattered along the 
approach, and this expedition cost several hundred 
pounds, besides taking more than one clergyman 
away from his own charge. This is a wide world, 
in which there certainly is a great deal of good to 
be done, but as none of us are like the tortoise, who 
could carry the whole world on his own shoulders, 
men who would really be useful must measure the 
utmost extent of their own individual ability, and 



FAIR ISLE. 95 

do the very most which is possible, without attempt- 
ing more, and too many parish clergymen would 
wander about like Wesley, who during fifty years 
never travelled less than 4500 miles annually. It 
was no bad jest on a certain itinerating rector of 
this kind, who frequently transferred his own work 
to a substitute, and preached in any parish rather 
than his own, that he should be nicknamed " Eng- 
land, because he expected every man to do his 
duty." 

These poor Shetlanders can afford no expensive 
deputations, but the half of what was paid for that 
one excursion which I have described, would place 
them permanently under the blessed influences of 
gospel light ; therefore I beg to move a resolution, 
which you shall second, that our next foreign mis- 
sion shall be established at Fair Isle. How much 
I should like now to send round a plate for your 
subscriptions ! In that case, a missionary need not 
laboriously acquire any difficult language, nor has 
he either a new religion to introduce or an old su- 
perstition to destroy, while he would be gratefully 
welcomed by a people, many of whom are mourn- 
fully sensible of their unhappy religious privations, 
and those who are not, need only the more urgently 
to be made aware of them. We find more excite- 
ment in sending to foreign heathens, — and they 
require all we can do, — but there are heathens at 



96 FAIR ISLE. 

home with a yet nearer claim to pity, though less 
attractive to the fancy. I heard of a missionary 
meeting lately, at which a Cherokee chief was pro- 
duced, covered with tatooing and feathers, to pray 
in his own unknown tongue, before a numerous 
congregation, and to make a speech extempore, or 
extrumpery as you say. Our poor Zetlanders would 
have no chance in comparison, yet the time and 
money expended by a foreign missionary on his 
long journey, besides studying Malabar or Hindos- 
tanee, and diving into the depths of Brahmin mytho- 
logy, might be occupied with far more immediate 
advantage if he set forth at once with the English 
Bible in his hand, to teach a people nearly as igno- 
rant as any barbarians, but far more walling to 
learn ; and those who contributed to so desirable an 
object, might hope to reap a harvest of immediate 
success, and to be blessed by the prayers of many 
whom they had assisted to rescue from darkness, 
and to place in the marvellous light of the gospel. 

In old times, the Duke of Medina Sidonia's ship, 
the Invincible, commanding the Spanish Armada, 
was wrecked off Fair Isle, when most of the crew, 
amounting to two hundred men, landed in fishing- 
boats. So numerous a swarm of guests would soon 
have occasioned a famine, therefore the natives 
murdered several, and hospitably entertained the 
rest. If supernumerary guests could be lawfully 



FAIR ISLE. 97 

disposed of in this way, what a massacre would take 
place at some dinner parties we have seen. Both 
hosts and visiters were rescued from approaching 
starvation at last by the appearance of a ship from 
Lerwick. On that occasion, the Duke appeared 
near the shore to welcome his dehverers, in the 
splendid costume of a Spanish nobleman, but Mal- 
colm Sinclair, a sturdy Presbyterian, who had come 
to entertain these foreign papists with all the rites 
of hospitality, nevertheless remarked, on being in- 
troduced to his distinguished guest, " I have seen 
many prettier men hanged on the Burrow-muir !" 

These long twilights are very enjoyable, and I 
often wish that those who have more time than they 
know how to use, could transfer a few superfluous 
hours to those who find every day too short for half 
what they wish to do ; but now that the stars are 
lighting their lamps it is time for me to extinguish 
mine. Since paper pillows are in fashion, you will 
know how to dispose of too lengthy a letter, so I 
must beware of being reduced to atoms, though it 
would sound extremely civil to tell a long-winded 
correspondent, that you never lie down without pla- 
cing her letters under your head, — pray do not sub- 
join that they put you to sleep. " We're a' noddin'." 



LERWICK. 



I hope there's none offended 
At me for telling this ; 
For it was not intended 
To be ta'en amiss. 

Burns. 

My dear Cousin, — Can this possibly be me at 
Lerwick ! I begin to think it may not be a dream ! 
You once said, in an extravagant moment, that any 
letter was worth any money, so I hope you will re- 
tain the same opinion, while I now dip the pen of 
astonishment in the ink of veracity, that, since you 
have never been sufficiently enterprising to travel 
so far, you may become proud of being related to 
any one who has, after hearing all our adventures 
by flood and field. 

"When a gentleman once mentioned having gone 
to see the lion at Exeter 'Change, a friend satirically 
inquired, " What did the lion think of you ?" rather 
a perplexing question ; but I hope our lions here are 
as much pleased with us as we are with them, see- 
ing I am already more than rewarded for taking 
this very long step towards the Arctic circle, and 
planting my standard on the Castle of Lerwick. 



LERWICK. ' 99 

A lady in Caithness, during one of our most un- 
favourable summers, when every thing looked 
brown, parched, and barren, became astonished to 
hear a stranger talking in raptures about the richly 
verdant thriving appearance of all the scenery in 
our countiy. Of course she supposed him in jest, 
till it turned out, on inquiry, that he was a native 
of Shetland ! Certainly here we see little beside 
grass and rocks, yet I admire beyond measure the 
bold massy features of the landscape, glittering be- 
neath a rising sun ; and there is something in it of 
unadorned magnificence very striking to a stranger. 

Lerwick is one of the oldest-looking towns I 
ever remember to have inspected, and appears like 
a small burlesque upon Venice, a range of houses 
being drilled along the shore, all standing up to 
their knees in water, while the sea washes six feet 
deep on their foundations ; and instead of dark gon- 
dolas, like coffins, floating about on the crystal 
waves, we have light graceful skiffs gliding rapidly 
along, bending their large white sails almost into 
the siu-f 

Last week sixty-three Dutch fishing-vessels 
sailed at once out of this beautiful and commodious 
harbour in the Sound of Brassay ; and residents 
here all keep a boat instead of a carriage or cart, 
being their only means of conveyance. No ^aman 
but a Zetlander could manage these very small 



100 LERWICK. 

canoes, like wherries from the Thames, with the 
sails of most disproportionate magnitude ; but they 
manoeuvre about in beautiful style, and the natives 
seem all nearly amphibious, looking as if they sat 
upon a dolphin, and holding the sail by a rope, 
which is let fly the moment a blast rises, throwing 
the sheet instantly at liberty. Accidents, however, 
do happen only too frequently on these rough and 
dangerous seas ; and it is a singular custom, that 
drowned persons are always buried far from the 
ocean, as if their spirits might still be disturbed by 
the horrors attending their decease. Do you remem- 
ber Lady , when she heard the sudden intelli- 
gence that a gentleman had been accidentally 
drowned in the river, close to her windows, instantly 
inquired, as her very first question, " Was he hand- 
some ?" 

This is the first year that a tolerable inn has 
been established at Lerwick, which is considered a 
most remarkable era, and the style is about equal to 
that on board a second-rate steam-boat, being con- 
ducted by a most respectable landlord from East 
Lothian. If any wealthy traveller, wishing to be 
remarkably comfortable, had brought his own car- 
riage and horses to Lerwick, he could not have 
penetrated beyond the pier, and by no possible con- 
trivance could his equipage have been available in 
driving up to the hotel, which is in so narrow a 



LERWICK. 101 

street, that A could easily have made a long 

arm to touch the opposite house. I remember once 
meeting an English lady going by steam to Staffa, 
who said it was her intention immediately on land- 
ing to order a post-chaise, and drive all round the 
island, but neither there nor here would the plan be 
very feasible, as not a wheel is stirring in the noise- 
less streets. That peevish Mrs. , the morning 

Vfter her arrival at Venice, complained that she had 
been so disturbed by " the noise of carriages !" it was 
impossible to close an eye ; but the streets at Ler- 
wick are about equally carriageless, being a curious 
assortment of courts, connected by lanes, and inter- 
sected by stairs, one of which divides the High 
Street quite across, and some of the streets are even 
arched over at the top. 

The only road in Shetland goes six miles to- 
wards Scalloway Castle, and we were told that but 
one gentleman ever had a carriage here, when he 
used to drive his wife several times up and down 
the w^hole distance, to give her an idea what a 
journey means. It might be said of him, as your 
old friend used to remark of her English relation, 
with a look of great importance, " He is the rich- 
est man in London ! he keeps his chariot !" The 
short road to Scalloway is, like all short cuts, nearly 
impassable, leading over a peat-bog, to be cleared 
in a succession of leaps, but if any one -wishes to 
9* 



102 LERWICK. 

see a Shetland pony shine, he should mount on his 
hack, the heavier the better, and perform a steeple 
chase over all the chasms and vs^alls whichheinthe 
way along the fine " corduroy road." Walking is, 
of course, a most necessary accomplishment in this 
country, where the shoes are made of materials so 
very substantial, that an old gentleman used to say, 
he wore in the morning three rows of nails on the 
sole, but for full dress only two rows. 

Some spirited proprietors projected great im- 
provements here in road-making, and would have 
summoned M'Adam himself from the deep ; but un- 
luckily one landlord, a soi-disant baronet, has, with 
short-sighted economy, put a spoke in all their 
wheels, refusing to let a stone be broken unless 
some very extravagant terms be conceded. This un- 
fortunate impedhnent must be a great annoyance to 
all the residents, and I wish they could be delivered 
from it, " To be disposed of, — an old established 
grievance, — going very cheap !" Nothing but an 
act of Parliament can lay down a road here now, 
such as had been projected, not that the ambition of 
Shetland pointed to a mail with four horses, attended 
by a guard blowing his horn, and flying round the 
islands to carry tourists round Noss and Scalloway ; 
but no one can tell what half a century may pro- 
duce, and on my next excursion to this region, I 
have promised to bring my chariot, while our friends 



LERWICK. 103 

have undertaken to proAdde a suitable road. Per- 
haps you may live to see some time a railway, like 
a great iron hoop, surrounding Great Britain, wdth 
the whole population cirding round at full speed, as 
we see children at a fair, wheeling along on a " turn 
about." 

The introduction of a weekly steamboat to Shet- 
land has begun a new era in this country. For- 
merly all communication with other places became 
so tedious and uncertain, that none could be safely 
depended on. A few years since, one of the princi- 
pal merchants here, who possessed more than twenty 
ships of his own, became so anxious for letters, that 
he sailed off to inquire for them personally at Edin- 
burgh. There the postmaster objected to deliver 
any, saying, it would be too great an advantage to 
give him over the other mercantile houses at Ler- 
wick, if he obtained his correspondence so prema- 
turely, and it was not until after the greatest diffi- 
culty, and legally proving his identity, that he could 
obtain the packet. 

The lower orders in Shetland seem rather be- 
neath the middle size, especially when compared to 
the tall Dutch skippers, stalking about in loose 
tunics, high caps, and heavy wooden clogs, which 
seem a most uncomfortable article of dress, being 
excavated in a solid block of wood, as if the foot 
had supernaturally forced its way in. We used to 



104 LERWICK. 

read in the Richmond play bills, of a hornpipe to be 
danced on the stage in wooden shoes, but here it 
could neither be light nor fantastic, as these slippers, 
liable to be shuffled off at every step, seem made to 
impede walking. The Dutch sailors exchange 
shoes with the Shetlanders for stockings, so that 
their traffic is easily set on foot. 

The sheep in these islands look like goats or 
greyhounds, having long legs, and lank bodies, and 
their colour is of that peculiar brown and blue 
which the Shetland stockings usually exhibit. 
Some are speckled of various hues, and go by the 
name of Jacob's sheep, though not lineal descend- 
ants of that flock. All the ladies here employ their 
long evenings in knitting ; and even the hard-work- 
ing women, when carrying on their backs the enor- 
mous heavy " creels" which are used here instead 
of carts, yet contrive to have a perpetual stocking 
on hand. I met one cleanly dressed chatty old gos- 
sip, the sort of looking personage who hobbles on 
the stage at the beginning of a farce, exclaiming, 
" How my old bones do ache !" and she assured me 
with great exultation, that she manufactured a stock- 
ing per day, and that every article she wore was 
entirely of her own spinning. I liked to see her 
honest pride, and if the gown had been French cam- 
bric, she could scarcely have expected me to admire 
it more. 



LERWICK. 105 

Before inns were invented at Lerwick, the pro- 
prietors and merchants kept open house for all 
strangers without exception, and must often, I should 
guess, have found occasion to look over the inven- 
tory of their plate, when exercising such boundless 
hospitality. A party of well-dressed, plausible 
looking foreigners arrived here once, and having 
previously ascertained the names and connections of 
all the chief inhabitants, they passed muster during 
several weeks, living at the principal house on the . 
island. One Sunday, however, their hospitable host 
was privately beckoned aside by a friend, who had 
observed his companions in the pew at church, and 
recognised them as a party of well-known black- 
legs from Paris! He recommended their being 
ejected from the house, in the most expeditious man- 
ner possible, but their entertainer replied, with 
characteristic liberality, that, *'■ though he would 
now be on his guard against imposition, yet while 
his guests continued to behave like gentlemen, he 
would persevere in treating them as such." Previ- 
ous to departing, the ungrateful visiters attempted 
some swindling transactions, which were, of course, 
counteracted, owing to this timely detection, and 
they were opprobriously dismissed from Shetland ; 
but, unfortimately, their schemes prospered better 
in Orkney, where they afterwards cheated some 
merchants to a large amount ; and it was a curious 



106 LERWICK. 

termination of the whole affair, that upon leaving 
Kirkwall, they very handsomely transmitted to the 
parish clergyman £5 for the poor ! This was an 
amusing sort of Robin Hood generosity, but some 
who deem it right to refuse money collected for 
charitable purposes, unless they approve of the 
means by which it has been raised, would be rather 
perplexed how to dispose of such a donation. 

Among countless instances of peculiar hospi- 
tality, it may be mentioned, that a Mr. Bruce re- 
ceived into his house some years ago, forty Russian 
shipwrecked sailors, maintained them during the 
whole winter, and sent the entire crew, at his own 
expense, back to their native country. He declined 
receiving any recompense, but the Empress Cathe- 
rine privately obtained an impression of his family 
seal, sent it over land to China, and ordered a mag- 
nificent dinner service of the finest porcelain to be 
manufactured for him without delay. By some un- 
fortunate oversight, the box containing this precious 
gift was seized at the custom house, and sold to a 
Mr. Reid, in whose possession it still remains, though 
I cannot but grudge him every dinner he eats off it. 
Mr. Bruce, while he lived, lighted a large fire every 
winter night close to the shore, and had a barrel of 
meal ready to be cooked into porridge, for distribu- 
tion among any number of poor sailors visiting those 
distant shores. They w^ere also allowed clean straw 



I.RRWICK. 107 

to sleep on at night, when unable otherwise to pro- 
cure a bed. 

The gentry at Lerwick are still so •extremely- 
kind to strangers, that oui- landlord should lock up 
his guests, as the only chance of keeping any, or he 
may perhaps be provoked at last to act like the inn- 
keeper at Luss, who, finding himself nearly ruined 
by the parish clergyman beguiling away all his 
visiters, at last one night carried his sign to the 
manse and nailed it over the door. 

One of the most uncommon subjects for aston- 
ishment, to a stranger, in Shetland, is, when he 
first discovers the very near neighbourhood of every 
gentleman's town and country house. The two are 
generally within sight of each other ! We were 
shown Mr. Mouat's elegant residence in Lerwick, 
and looking full in its face, from the opposite side 
of a narrow bay, stands^ Gardie House, his country- 
seat ! It is a large, handsome, well-windowed 
house, which seems to be staring about on every 
side and wondering when the trees will come up. 
Mr. Ogilvy has, what Robins the auctioneer would 
call a most magnificent and desirable countiy resi- 
dence, surrounded by gardens, terraces, and offices 
on an extensive scale, but, by the help of a speaking- 
trumpet, you might deliver a verbal message from 
his drawing-room in the country to his drawing- 
room in town ; and Mr. Hay's rural retreat is ex- 



108 LERWICK. 

actly a ten minutes' walk from his mansion in Ler- 
wick. All the principal families here make a 
regular " flitting" every season, from town to 
country, probably leaving their P P C cards for each 
other, and, after taking a pathetic leave of the me- 
tropolitan gayeties, set out, by easy stages, changing 
horses as often as may be necessary, and plunging 
into the wilderness of rural enjoyment vvdthin half a 
mile. In London, those who have no estates often 
close their front windows for the summer, and with- 
draw out of sight, while etiquette forbids their being 
visible in town, and to the Shetland gentiy the 
change is scarcely gTeater. If a Court Circular be 
ever established at Lerwick we shall read a list of 

FASHIONABLE CHANGES. 

Mr. Mouat, for the summer, from the north to 
the south side of Lerwick Bay. Mr. Ogilvy and 
family, half a mile west, for change of air. Mr. 
Ployen, from Feroe, on a southern tour in Shetland 
and Orkney ! 

Fort Charlotte, at Lerwick, — an imposing old 
fortification all bristling round with guns, — is in 
good repair, and serves partly as a jail, where we 
saw four youths under fourteen, one of whom was 
a gentleman's son, confined in solitary cells, for a 
burglary committed at Orkney, when they robbed 
an old man of eighteenpence. They all maintained 



LERWICK. 109 

that the money was immediately to have been re- 
turned, as they merely intended a jest, but the law 
does not understand such practical jokes. The 
jailer's wife said, within hearing of the young crim- 
inals, while tears started to her eyes, that she never 
had seen more excellent boys, and pronounced their 
panegyric in terms so glowing, that a gentleman 
present thought it full time to remind her and the 
prisoners that such unqualified praise could scarcely 
be merited by young gentlemen placed under her 
husband's lock and key. 

A stranger, who had landed with us from the 
steam-boat, was much entertained by a corporal 
who accosted hun, when wandering about the fort 
alone, and announced with great official importance, 
that he was " the Governor !" adding the important 
fact, that four thousand pounds of gunpowder were 
placed under his charge, but on inquiring it came 
out that he has no authority to fire, even if an enemy 
appear, and that he has the command of no garrison 
but himself. A party of mischievous boys at Ler- 
wick, on one occasion, alarmed the whole surround- 
ing country, by privately loading one of the super- 
annuated cannons at Fort Charlotte and firing it off! 
Some part of the wall was shattered, in consequence 
of an extra charge having been thrust in, and a sen- 
sation was occasioned by the explosion like that 
caused to Sir Walter Scott's Antiquary when the 
10 



110 LERWICK. 

beacon-fire at Fairport was lighted. The whole 
population of Lerwick flew to ascertain what en- 
emy had landed to take possession of the island, and 
we can scarcely wonder at some panic being ex- 
cited, considering that the nearest naval force which 
can be summoned to protect any part of Scotland is 
stationed at Chatham. If Paul Jones had a suc- 
cessor, he might land in Shetland any day, as he did 
once in Galloway, and take the very tea-pots off the 
breakfast-tables. 

On the last birth-day which George the Fourth 
lived to see, the flag-staff at Lerwick Castle fell 
prostrate to the earth, which was afterwards con- 
sidered a prophetic omen. The very same pole is 
now so insufficiently propped up that all well- 
%vishers of her present Majesty should subscribe to 
raise one, which shall promise, by its firmness, to see 
out the present century, or longer, if possible. Loyal 
as the inhabitants of Shetland are, however, their 
woods and forests could scarcely supply so much as 
a pair of Dutch clogs, and still less a new flag-staff, 
but we must suppose the trees were all cut down to 
show the sea views, which are so very fine. The 
tallest and grandest tree I saw during my stay on 
the island, was a stalk of rhubarb nearly seven feet 
high, which had run to seed, and waved its head 
majestically in a garden below the fort, looking quite 
shady and ornamental. It had been planted by 



LERWICK. Ill 

some officers, and really did them great credit. The 
Arabians have a proverb, which I wish we may all 
live to see realized here, " Be patient, and the mul- 
berry-leaf will become satin." 

I expected to observe Shetland ponies galloping 
in every field, but they are chiefly running wild 
among the distant unenclosed hills, where, in most 
instances, the fore-legs are manacled together. 
Nothing is trusted to the honour of a Shetland 
poney, but they are all shackled in a most uneasy 
manner, hobbling along like rabbits, which incon- 
venient contrivance ruins their paces afterwards. 
When well fed from an early age, they grow nearly 
to the height of a donkey, but some years ago, Mr. 
Hay reared a perfectly well-formed poney, which 
measured only twenty-six inches high. Not so tall 
as a moderate-sized hobby-horse ! I have heard 
sportsmen talk in praise of a horse that would can- 
ter round a cabbage-leaf, but here was one literally 
capable of doing so. The very largest men ride 
these tiny little creatures at full speed, looking from 
a distance as if they had merely hooked on a pair 
of additional legs, being scarcely raised a foot off 
the ground, and yet racing rapidly along. How 
would a regiment of calvary look, mounted, or low- 
ered rather, on these stout little chargers ! 

Many very curious arctic birds stray over to 
this country, and I have seen one most beautiful 



112 LERWICK. 

snow-owl, which had been killed in this neighbour- 
hood, as large as an eagle, and the colour of a swan- 
down muff. Eider ducks are very abundant, and 
eagles so very destructive, that five shillings a-head 
used to be given for shooting them. Swans appear 
in great flocks during spring. I dare say you have 
not forgotten our friend, who said he had very near- 
ly sent you a swan-down muff from the Highlands, 
and when we asked an explanation of the reason 
why so welcome a present never came, it turned 
out that he had merely " seen a flight of wdld swans 
over his head, and wished he had a gun !" 

Of course all the birds here must live on the 
ground, having neither hedges nor trees in which 
to form a colony, but the plovers and other unam- 
bitious kinds malce themselves quite at home. I am 
told the crows build their nests of fish-bones, as a 
substitute for sticks, which shows a great deal of 
genius, equal to that of the Greenlanders, who form 
their houses of whalebone. It is interesting thus to 
observe how nearly instinct can approach to reason, 
in adapting means to an end, but the one is born at 
once to its utmost perfection, and the other is culti- 
vated or destroyed by the possessor, according as he 
employs it, and may be advanced, if used in a Chris- 
tian spirit, to higher and higher perfection every 
day, stretching from earth to heaven, till it reaches 
the ceaseless progress of an eternal existence. 



LERWICK. 113 

Nature is outlined along this coast on so mag- 
nificent a scale, that we scarcely miss the softer 
touches, which give grace and beauty to a land- 
scape. All that rock and water can do, is done ; 
and while ornamental vegetation is entirely wanting, 
that which is useful seems abundant, especially in 
the valley of Tingwall, where grain and vegetables 
ripen in their utmost perfection j the pasture is so 
excellent, it would have transported an Argyleshire 
laird, who was asked some time since whether he 
had been disappointed in his first view of Staifa, 
when he replied, " Quite the contrary ! I was told 
the island pastured only twenty sheep, and I counted 
fourscore !" 

The labour and expense to which several pro- 
prietors have gone, in cultivating trees and gardens, 
do prodigious honour to their perseverance, patriot- 
ism, and taste ; but in a climate where gooseberries 
scarcely ripen on the wall, and apples are unknown, 
what can be done 1 We have all a tendency to 
that respectable weakness of thinking our own 
country the best in the world, and the enterprising 
cultivators here, may console themselves about their 
unproductive soil, by saying, as the Duke of Wel- 
lington said of his army, " It is given to me to make 
the best of !" 

The youngest children in Shetland can make ^n 
income of twenty shilUngs per annum, by catching 
10* 



114 LERWICK. 

the small fish named " sillocks, or pars," abomiding 
in swarms here, which owe their value to the oil 
extracted from them, two thousand barrels of which 
were manufactured in one year, from those diminu- 
tive fry, not measuring above four or five inches 
long. Thus food and light become easily accessi- 
ble in a country where grain is scarce, and where 
the days are not over long. 

In the churchyard at Ting wall, this inscription 
appears on an old tomb-stone, " Here lies an honest 
man !" It seems like an implied imputation on all 
those buried near him. There is more truth perhaps 
in that simple memorial, than in a panegyrical epi- 
taph I was busy reading at a certain cathedral 
lately, wondering how so great and good a man 
could ever have been spared out of the world, when 
the beadle, observing my occupation, quietly said, 
" He was the very reverse, ma'am, of all you see 
there !" 

We had an excellent sermon at Lerwick from 
the parish clergyman, Mr. Barclay, formerly pro- 
fessor of elocution at Aberdeen. He gave us so 
edifying an address, that if I could attend church in 
Shetland without crossing the sea, it would give me 
pleasure to go often. The innkeeper conducted us 
to his own pew, and I had scarcely time to settle 
myself comfortably, before the clerk, a most res- 
pectable man in black robes, began publishing, in 



LERWICK. 115 

an easy gossiping tone, the banns of several mar- 
riages ! Not seeing any objection to the proposed 
alliances, I forbade none of them, but began specu- 
lating how it could possibly happen, that in this 
strange place, the clerk's voice and physiognomy 
seemed quite familiar to me. He sung particularly 
well, being one of the best " precentors" I know, 
and after a moment's perplexity, it flashed across 
my recollection, that this was actually " mine host" 
from the bar ! We almost expected to find a charge 
for the pew in his bill, but our expenses from be- 
ginning to end in Shetland could scarcely cover the 
point of a pin. 

Nothing could exceed the hospitality and kind- 
ness we received from Mr. Hay, who is quite a 
northern lord of the isles, his name being as inti- 
mately connected wdth Shetland as Bonaparte's wdth 
St. Helena, and his house becomes a home to every 
stranger w^ho reaches these shores. A great dis- 
tinction is made here between " Scotchmen and 
Shetlanders ;" but the Scotch hospitality, for which 
we are justly celebrated, is almost outdone by our 
northern neighbours, many of whom were most kind- 
ly urgent that we should measure our visit by weeks 
rather than by hours. I have promised, if any wind 
blows me here again, to remain as many days as 
will enable us to see every thing thoroughly ; so, 
considering what scarce commodities good days are, 



116 LERWICK. 

our visit may probably extend throughout a whole 
season. 

On Monday we discussed in long and anxious 
debate with Mr. Hay how that one only morning 
we had for seeing all Shetland, could be most ad- 
vantageously disposed of, and he entered into our 
case with the same mature deliberation as if I had 
consulted him about the investment of my whole 
fortune. The day threatened every thing ! wind, 
rain, mist, and cold ! nothing could look more un- 
propitious, but still some adventure must be achieved, 
and as we could not visit both Scalloway Castle 
and Noss Cradle, we weighed the castle against the 
precipice, balancing and re-balancing their merits 
with the most careful precision, and puzzled beyond 
measure which must kick the beam. At last it sud- 
denly occurred to me that I can see a castle any day, 
but such a cradle as that of Noss never, therefore 
the scale began to preponderate greatly, when Mr. 
Hay being summoned on business to Lerwick, com- 
mitted us to the custody of his son, ordering ponies 
to the door in case we preferred Scalloway, and a 
boat if we determined to try a second childhood in 
the cradle. 

As Burns remarked, " the plans of mice and 
men are liable to go awry." Nine hours after- 
wards, when Mr. Hay returned, he found us still 
seated in the drawing-room, having seen neither the 



LERWICK. IIT- 

one place nor the other, as unfortunately a squall of 
wind; with bitter torrents of rain, had come on, ac- 
companied by a fog, which cut the head off every 
precipice and hilL It was the sort of rain that never 
stops, being dogged-looking and obstinate, proceed- 
ing from large mountainous clouds, hanging heavily 
down, as if Ben Lomond and Schiehallion had 
mounted overhead, therefore we resigned ourselves 
to a very pleasant chat in the house, with the 
agreeable family circle of Mr. Hay, joined by Mr. 
Hamilton, who had crossed from Brassay to meet us 
again. As Chateaubriand desired a friend to inscribe 
his name on the pyramids of Egypt, that posterity 
might never guess he had actually left the country 
without inspecting them, we must get our signatures 
engraved on the cliffs at Noss. 

It has been long remarked, that the gentry in 
Shetland use their long winter evenings to great 
advantage, in reading most extensively, which be- 
comes so obviously the case in conversing with them, 
that I began almost to regret our own days not being 
equally short. Perhaps also the cold winds here 
assist in sharpening people's intellects, a propos 
to which I am about to start a perfectly new philo- 
sophical theory on this very subject ! Warm cli- 
mates certainly do enervate the mind, as we see that 
the lowest scale of intellect prevails in Africa, China, 
and the West Indies. Italy and France are greatly 



118 LERWICK. 

inferior to England ; — Scotland excels them all, and 
even our great magician, Sir Walter Scott, before 
writing his Pirate, or his journal, took a sharpening 
in Shetland. Now, this all combines to prove, on 
undoubted premises, like Phrenology or Animal 
Magnetism, that peculiar acuteness should be ex- 
pected in minds oearest the pole, and if you think a 
course of popular lectures on the subject would 
" take," perhaps I could sketch out the prospectus. 
Common phraseology favours my discovery, as every 
man who makes too clever a bargain with his neigh- 
bour, is said to be " too far north for him !" and, 
besides, the most brilliant magazine in Scotland is 
edited by Christopher North ! Need I say more ? 

Instead of travelling over Shetland with us, Mr. 
Charles Hay very obligingly showed me a chart of 
it, on so large a scale, that three inches are given to 
each mile, and not a single peat-stack seemed want- 
ing, therefore we made a leisurely tour over the 
wide expanse, pausing occasionally to hear elabo- 
rate descriptions of the curiosities we ought to have 
seen, and of the accidents we might probably have 
met with ; all very interesting, but also rather tan- 
talizing. 

During a short promenade, we inspected one of 
the primitive mills frequently used here to grind 
corn, exactly similar to those of Norway, and I wish 
the whole board of agriculture had accompanied us 



LERWICK. 119 

to be diverted at the sight of this antediluvian ma- 
chinery. It consisted of four very low dykes, with 
a turf roof, beneath which, a small stream running 
in a trough not four inches deep, turned a wheel 
placed horizontally instead of perpendicularly, so 
that half the force was neutralized, and there you 
have the whote concern ! 

Near the Cleik'em-in-Mill, we were shown a 
most amusing little miniature cottage, containing 
one window behind, one before, one in the roof, and 
a door, but there are five apartments inside. Burn 
or Gillespie might have been proud of laying out 
the accommodation to so much advantage, but it 
was all planned and executed by the proprietor, a 
custom-house officer, on hospitable thoughts intent, 
who wished to have spare beds for his friends. The 
dining-room is so very small that any one sitting at 
table, must rise and stand quite upright against the 
wall, if the door be opened ; but this superb resi- 
dence rejoices in a name larger than itself, being 
called " Glenspleuchen," and the owner may always 
keep up his dignity like the gentleman described in 
an old ballad, — 

" Stately slept he east the wa', 
And stately slept he west." 

The finest remnant of a Teutonic Castle which 
ever enchanted the society of antiquaries may be 
seen on the island of Mousa, twelve miles distant 



120 LERWICK. 

from Lerwick. It stands about forty feet high, look- 
ing externally like a small pyramid of Egypt, — or 
some pre-Adamite conformation, — or an old glass 
house — take any comparison you like best. It is 
composed of two circular w^alls, one within the 
other, like the ivory balls from China, leaving a 
passage about five feet wide between? This inter- 
val is said to have been used for a place of safety 
during war, and as these retreats, from their wind- 
ing about, were called di-agons or serpents, it has 
been conjectured that an allusion to such ancient 
sanctuaries may have originated the allegorical ro- 
mances, afterwards so popular, relating to beautiful 
Princesses who were guarded by monsters, and res- 
cued by dragons. 

There is, in most well-constituted minds, an in- 
stinctive respect for rank, which certainly ought to 
exist in a high degree, if, as in many cases, it only 
adorns what is in other respects pre-eminent, and 
acts as " the guinea stamp" on that which is already 
gold. In a country like Shetland, without any resi- 
dent nobility, I scarcely think, that if all the pleas- 
ing, well-bred people we conversed with had been 
insensibly transformed into dukes and duchesses, it 
could have made our evenmg circle more agreeable 
or entertaining ; but at present, the great theme of 
conversation in every house, and the most deserv- 
edly popular person in the far north, seems to be a 



LERWICK. 121 

young nobleman, the first English peer who ever 
penetrated into Shetland. It certainly is most grati- 
fying to a part of the world, usually forsaken and 
neglected, even by those who are its natural resi- 
dents, that the inhabitants have been repeatedly 
visited, on terms of cordial kindness and intimacy, 
by one who might choose his own society in any 
part of Great Britain, and whose estates are almost 
equal in value to any one of the three northern 
counties in which, for the last two years, he has 
resided. The young men in Shetland expected 
nothing but luxurious indolence from an " English 
Lord" possessing unbounded wealth, whose guar- 
dians had recently purchased an addition to his vast 
estates to the value of ^6900,000, but they were as- 
tonished at his arriving across these dangerous seas, 
having performed a voyage of one hundred miles in 
an open fishing-boat, and still more, that being an 
accomplished scholar, and accompanied by one of 
the most pious and learned tutors at Oxford, he 
nevertheless excelled in all the field-sports and 
athletic exercises to which they were accustomed. 

The three predecessors of Lord Ward were each, 
in their day, pre-eminent for something. The first 
was so distinguished for his personal appearance, 
that in the well-known print you have seen, repre- 
senting Lord Chatham's death, his figure was made 
the most prominent of all. My grand uncle, Lord 
11 



/ 



122 LERWICK. 

Dudley and Ward, who succeeded him, expended 
so many thousands every year in building churches, 
and in the most lavish charitable benefactions, that 
he was justly called " the rich man's model, and the 
poor man's friend ;" and his son, the late Earl Dud- 
ley, Secretary of State to George the Fomlh, 
though his great abilities were tarnished by an ex- 
traordinary degree of eccentricity, was, nevertheless, 
one of the most brilliant wits and accomplished 
scholars of his time. Though an only son, yet from 
infancy he never knew the happiness of domestic 
life, having been, at the early age of six months, 
placed by his rather whimsical parents in a separate 
house and establishment, where they occasionally 
visited him, but his education was entirely superin- 
tended by a succession of nursery governesses and 
tutors, and he always declared that his only experi- 
ence of a happy home was when placed at last 
under the roof of Professor Dugald Stewart, at 
Edinburgh. His life of early solitude engendered 
those peculiar habits which occasionally clouded the 
lustre of his shining abilities, and among other 
strange customs, he acquired so unconquerable a 
habit of thinking aloud, that his intimate friends 
used to say, in allusion to his two titles, that " Dud- 
ley was speaking to Ward." The ludicrous effect 
produced by these public meditations during his 
Majesty's cabinet councils, became a principal cause 



LERWICK. 123 

of his retirement from office. On one occasion, 
when a gentleman obUgingly took him home in his 
carriage, to avoid a shower of rain, he conversed 
dihgently with himself during their progress, saying, 
" I suppose he will expect me to ask him to dinner ! 
I'm afraid it must be done." His companion being 
fond of a jest, instantly commenced an accompani- 
ment, muttering to himself quite audibly, " If he 
asks me to dinner, I shall certainly not go !" Upon 
hearing this. Lord Dudley laughed heartily, made an 
apology, and insisted on the invitation being both 
given and accepted, which aocordingly it was. A 
fall from his horse, on the continent, seems to have 
occasioned some disease of the brain, which brought 
a melancholy cloud over his latter years, and at his 
own express desire, all his papers were destroyed, 
leaving no record behind worthy of his great intel- 
lect, before it darkened into the gloom of night. 

The steam-boat being about to sail from Shet- 
land, we were now called on to decide either on 
leaving the island immediately, or staying an entire 
week. If we could have lingered on from day to 
day, I might probably have enjoyed myself there 
for a month, but it is a serious thing to accept an 
invitation from strangers for seven long days ; and 
though the hospitable inhabitants appeared to think 
that those who once came there should never go 
away, while we were surrounded by more agreeable 



124 LERWICK. 

friends than I ever made in so short a time before, 
each of whom we were sorry to leave, yet we ad- 
hered firmly to om* original plan of departing, " much 
and justly regretted." Meantime the weather had 
become stormy, the wind cutting like a scythe, and 
the atmosphere moreover so hazy, that I felt almost 
tempted to settle for life in Shetland, rather than 
encounter the very formidable voyage before us. 
We wished it liad been possible now to summon 
the obliging genii who carried Prince Camaralza- 
man a thousand leagues without disturbing his slum- 
bers ! I envied every bird that flew past, and 
scarcely dared even to look at the sea, thinking 
how much too intimately acquainted we should 
soon become ; but after a P P C dinner with Mr. 
Hay, we embarked, escorted by all the kind friends 
we had acqmred at Lerwick, on board the steam- 
boat, or Damp-skiff, as it is appropriately named in 
our friend the Danish govei'nor's language. 

Having been always hitherto accustomed to 
consider Thurso Castle as the ultima thule, I could 
not get over the oddity of receiving the good wishes 
of our companions for a pleasant voyage south to 
Caithness, and certainly the prospect of its being 
safe or agreeable seemed momentarily diminishing. 
The captain expressed great surprise at my em- 
barking on such a night of fog and wind, while a 
poor woman, who had brought three ponies to be 



LERWICK. 125 

transported, said the evening was too rough for 
them, and led her little flock ashore. I very nearly 
determined to accompany them back, and had not 
quite made up my mind on the subject, when sud- 
denly the vessel started off in full career, the skiff 
containing our convoy of friends gradually vanished 
in the fog, the w^aving of handkerchiefs ceased, and 
Shetland was no more. 

I felt much amused at a sailor, when we came 

on board, observing to A , " I thought you 

would not stay long, Sir ! the climate is too cold for 
any gentleman !" 

What a night this w^as ! I dared not go below 
at all, but turned two days into one, by remaining 
on deck, watching the endless twilight, while our 
tottering boat wrestled through the long sweeping 
waves, which tilted us up as if we had been placed 
on an enormous swing, and then away we dashed 
into the very bosom of the ocean, casting up a sheet 
of spray which drenched all the deck. Never were 
mountains so easily ascended ! we sprung up the 
side of Ben Nevis or Snowdon at a single bound, 
and then rushed down a Montague Russe to the 
bottom, — 

While ev'ry mad wave drown'd the moon, 
Or whistled aloft its tempest tune. 

The sun set, looking dimly and coldly through dark 

stripes of grey cloud, as if enclosed within a large 

11* 



126 ~ lerwick:. 

iron grate, and burned to embers, but at last it went 
entirely out, so the world remained, with nothing 
visible by the cold wan twilight, but the moon, the 
stars, and myself. The whole creation seemed like 
a dream, so solemn and indistinct, as if the world 
were in a trance, but for the stormy wind which 
blew with unabated vehemence. Nothing brings 
to my mind so awful an idea of the wrath of God, 
as that sustained exhibition of His mighty power, to 
be traced in a hurricane. Even a thunder-storm is 
scarcely so impressive ! 

Morning was at last ushered in by the crowing 
of a cock most vociferously, and the sun himself 
emerged from the ocean like a globe of liquid fire, 
blazing over sea and sky, till both were illuminated 
with a flood of splendour. I should have liked, for 
the moment, to be an Italian improvisatrice, and 
apostrophized the sun, moon, stars, ocean, and all 
the grand objects which had so recently delighted 
me 5 but the true sublime of their existence is only 
to be fully appreciated in connection with their 
great originator. I could not but think, if the sun 
were an eye visibly watching all we do or think, it 
would cause a most solemnizing restraint over all 
our actions. "What scenes that orb has look'd 
upon, since first its race began !" Yet this bright 
luminary is but one manifestation among thousands 
gloriously testifying the perpetual presence and un- 



LERWICK. 127 

ceasing watchfulness of that omnipotent Being who 
created us and it, — whose eye is in every place, 
" beholding the evil and the good." Why do we 
not more constantly remember that great and holy 
Being, who " compasseth our path and our lying 
down, and is acquainted with all our ways ?" 

I contrived to stand on deck, grasping hold of 
a rope, and clinging to the gangway, while Captain 
Philips traced the whole scene of Sir Walter Scott's 
Pirate, and treated me to a running criticism on its 
merits, which might have made a valuable article 
for the Quarterly Review. He had lately compli- 
mented the novel by a second perusal, and pointed 
to where once stood the ruins of Jarlshof Castle, and 
where the towering precipice of Fitful Head still 
keeps its station, looking almost supernatural. It 
rises four hundred feet perpendicularly out of the 
ocean ; and, at the moment we passed it, was 
crow^ned by fantastic wreaths of mist, blown into 
strange unearthly peaks, the whole of which looked 
so perfectly solid, that you might have fancied they 
were all actual rocks. 

Captain Philips is a most fearless navigator, 
having once attempted the nearly impossible exploit 
of sailing through " the Roost of Sumburgh," a boil- 
ing sea, which dashes tumultuously up to the base 
of a headland, towering bold and erect nearly one 
thousand feet high, thus raising its head to heaven. 



128 LERWICK. 

while storms and tempests rage unheeded at its foot. 
There the Atlantic and German oceans meet, on not 
very peaceful terms, and the waves break up with 
such gigantic strength, that the spray is sometimes 
thrown several hundred feet over the rocks, falling 
back in a perfect Niagara of foam; and a long 
stream of turbulent billows may be traced three 
miles into the ocean, caused by this concussion of 
tides. Vessels inadvertently entering its vortex 
during a comparative calm, have been tossed, with- 
out hope of escape, for three or four days, with the 
waves washing almost in a stream over the deck. 
This description reminded me of the young lady 
who suddenly changed her mind about going to 
India, and gave, as her reason, that she was told, 
" every vessel, in crossing the line, remained three 
days under water !" 

On the occasion of trying his powers in the 
Roost, Captain Philips penetrated forwards, till the 
Sovereign was literally boring through the waves, 
and being at length within a few buckets of be- 
coming quite ingulfed, she with some difficulty 
wheeled about, not quite drowned, and all but 
swamped. Since then, no audacious paddles have 
intruded within that very respectful distance at 
which we kept from Sumburgh-head, which has 
presided over some fearful shipwrecks. Many a 
noble vessel has there sunk to rise no more, and 



WICK. 129 

many a despairing eye has fixed its last glance on 
those mighty cliffs ! In 1595, the Earl of Orkney 
made a law, that if any man attempted to relieve 
vessels in distress, he should be punished in his per- 
son, and forthwith severely fined, at his Lordship's 
own pleasure, a discretionary power, exercised on 
so very extensive a scale, that he was finally exe- 
cuted at Edinburgh for his tyrannical and rapacious 
conduct. It was rather an awkward superstition 
among the lower orders long ago, that whoever 
rescued a diowning man, might depend upon re- 
ceiving some mortal injury from his hand ; but I 
hope the Humane Society can give a different report 
in modern times, and return a favourable verdict of 
"not proven." 

The harbour at Wick is considered, during an 
east wind, the most dangerous part of a voyage 
from Shetland ! therefore, seeing the wind riotous, 
and the waves tossing up their white curly heads 
in the bay. Captain Philips recommended that we 
should trust ourselves in preference to a small boat 
in Sinclair bay, which accordingly we did, landing 
near the ancient walls of Ackergill tower, after a 
nineteen hours passage from Shetland ; and really, 
considering all we had come through, I felt rather 
astonished to see myself alive and well. When did 
you ever hear of a voyage in which people were 
not within an inch of their lives 1 The innkeeper 



130 WICK. 

at Wick proved himself quite a genius in his line, 
having actually shown so much forethought, as to 
place a gig in waiting for us close to the surf, in 
which we deposited our heavy baggage, and 
walked to the town, two miles off, where, even on 
these desolate heaths, I could have exclaimed, like 
Gonzalo, " Now would I give a thousand furlongs 
of sea for an acre of barren ground." I would say 
of such a voyage, as Lord Chesterfield did of hunt- 
ing, " Do people ever go a second time !" It cer- 
tainly is a wonderful infatuation, and every excur- 
sion I make is always " positively for the last time, 
and by particular desire;" but again and again 
some dire necessity occurs, and I become " an invol- 
untary voluntary" once more on the sea. 

If you are desirous to have a letter answered 
immediately, write always to the busiest persons 
you know, for they are always the most punctual, 
of which my epistle to-day is an undeniable instance. 
In considerable haste, and with a one-legged pen, 
yours, &c. &c. 



FERRYTOWN. 



Though to the west retreating, 
Daylight may soon be fleeting; 
Welcome ye darker hours, 
Our sunshine is within. 

JVIy dear Cousm, — If our correspondence con- 
tinues to be kept up so diligently, we shall both soon 
resemble the Spanish author, who wrote three times 
as many pages as he lived days in the world ; and 
though he was considered a wonderful man in those 
primitive times, it is quite an everyday case now, 
for there are many living authors who can make a 
ream of paper " look foolish" in a month. Easy 
writing is said to be very hard reading, but we have 
weekly and monthly opportunities of trying the ex- 
periment now, as many who might become stand- 
ard authors, if they did themselves any justice, pre- 
fer writing against time. Such w^orks come out in 
a galloping consumption from the first, published, 
bought, read, buried in oblivion, and succeeded by 
a fresh progeny from the same pen, all within the 
period of a Quarterly Review, and we are scarcely 
ailowed time to form a more accurate estimate of 
their value than the student who hurried through 



132 FERRYTOWN. 

Euclid in a week, and said it was very amusing, but 
he could make nothing of the pictures. Formerly 
the world was said to be divided into three classes. 
Those who live to read, — ^those who live to act, — 
and those who live to talk, — but you will allow we 
have a fourth class now, more numerous than all 
the others united, — those who live to write. I re- 
member hearing of a whimsical publisher, who used 
at his dinner-parties to make authors take precedence 
according to the bulk of their works. The folios 
walked first, the quartos followed, the octavos came 
last, and, I suppose, the duodecimos dropped in to 
tea, but if your correspondents have rank on the 
same scale of measurement, this letter will promote 
me to a place of great distinction, as I mean it to be 
perfectly endless. 

An Italian proverb says, " Every road leads to 
Rome," but here the most northern highways in 
Scotland are like the spokes of a wheel, all center- 
ing at Inverness. Though I would gladly sweep 
round a hundred miles, to avoid revisiting the same 
place, no other outlet presents itself towards the 
south, and therefore we resigned ourselves to a 
tiresome da capo. An Irishman got himself once 
into the greatest perplexity while counting on his 
fingers a party of three with whom he had dined the 
previous day : " There were the two O'Flanagans 
one, myself tw^o ; but who was the third 1 The 



FERRYTOWN. 133 

two O'Flanagans one, myself two ! !" — now in the 
same way, to save repetition, my two visits to Inver- 
ness shall be reckoned for one, though, pre^dous to 
our arrival, the journey of one hundred and twenty 
miles is vp^orth describing, as we were pursued the 
whole way by the same hurricane which escorted 
us from Shetland. I enjoyed it now most comfort- 
ably, however, on shore, admiring the picturesque 
effect of ships in a storm, and feeling most thank- 
ful not to be on board. Some travellers are in such 
haste, they would sacrifice their lives to save half an 
hour, and a gentleman who washed to proceed by 
the mail yesterday from Golspie to Inverness, find- 
ing it full, embarked in an open boat, which was 
instantly blown out to sea, carried off the contrary 
way, and finally dashed to pieces, but he was him- 
self picked up almost alive, as far north as Helms- 
dale, by a Frenchman who was passing by chance, 
and arrived safe this morning at the point from 
which he set out. 

When we reached Ferrytown the sea was cov- 
ered with a drifting foam, so that even the mail 
could not think of crossing, and the ferryman's wife 
told us that, though he usually crosses in ten min- 
utes, her husband had been at sea six hours during 
the morning vainly trying to get over. She was in 
tears most of the time, expecting him every instant 
to go down, but there he stood now perfectly safe ; 
12 



134 FERRYTOWN. 

and it would have made you smile to see the little 
ordinary looking old man who had been the object 
of interest and affection so intense. Her feelings 
were rather more pleasingly testified than those of 

Lady for her husband, when he nearly fell 

overboard from a steam-boat, and she called out to 
a sailor, " Take care of that man, for he belongs to 



me ; 



t" 



The ferryman seemed quite ready to try an ex- 
perimental trip across, if any of us had the least 
curiosity to go. He wore a silver snuff-box, given 
him for saving the lives of fifteen persons on a for- 
mer occasion, which was some encouragement, and 
he seemed quite anxious for another opportunity of 
distinguishing himself. I saw the spot where a boat 
was upset thirty years since, when ninety-nine per- 
sons were lost, and we were shown the very wave 
in which an English gentleman, an admirable swim- 
mer, was drowned some years ago, so that seemed 
quite warning enough ! I prefer, at any time, avoid- 
ing a danger to escaping out of it, and, therefore, 
when we heard some time afterwards that a boat 
was actually in preparation to carry the mail across, 
I proposed a resolution and seconded it myself, that 
A and I should remain a day at the Ferry- 
house, wliich question was triumphantly carried by 
a Whig majority of one. 

It was an interesting moment when we stood 



FERRYTOWN. 135 

on the shore, accompanied by several other travel- 
lers as prudent as ourselves, watching with strained 
eyes the little enterprising vessel tossing and tumb- 
ling on the angry billows as if it had been mad, but 
the letter-bags landed in triumph at last, having 
been blown over in nine minutes ! Those who re- 
ceived their correspondence that day, httle knew at 
what hazard these epistles were punctually for- 
warded. 

A boatman who conducted us to the little cot- 
tage-inn at Ferrytown, informed me that the land- 
lady only admitted "very particular people," but 
our reception M'as favourable, and she even conde- 
scended to cook some excellent hot cakes, as we 
were quite in the humour of taking what your friend 
calls " a big tea." This was the smallest inn I 
ever entered, but remarkably tidy, with table-cloths, 
sheets, and damask towels, as fine as in any gentle- 
man's house. How unfortunate that the good old 
spinning days of Scotland are over : aged women 
no longer find a cheerful companion in their wheels, 
the busy hum of which used to beguile their lonely 
horns. Every cottage then amassed its treasures of 
home-made linen, so that while the younger women, 
like our landlady, added to the comfort of their 
household and children by active industry, the aged 
used very frequently to occupy their latter days, with 
a melancholy satisfaction, in preparing their own 



136 INVERNESS. 

winding-sheet, and the perfect pride and pleasure 
with which the dying now talk of having their 
" dead clothes" ready, would sometimes almost 
startle you. 

As one of the greatest agricultural meetings in 
the north was taking place at Inverness, and two 
hundred gentlemen had assembled to dine here, 
from all parts of the country, we were quite aston- 
ished at our own good fortune in obtaining comfort- 
able apartments at the Caledonian Hotel, where I 
scarcely expected to find standing room. Many 
years ago, my father succeeded in establishing a 
yearly wool-market at Inverness, where no one can 
say there is " much cry and little wool." The sales 
are so extensive, that more than 100,000 sheep 
generally change owners here annually, besides an 
incredible quantity of wool. • From the window of 
our sitting-room, I can see at this moment a solid 
mass of several hundred people belonging to every 
rank and degree, who have stood immovable there 
during two successive days! English cloth mer- 
chants, Scotch proprietors, farmers, factors, and 
shepherds, all evidently with their brains wool- 
gathering, are so busy making bargains, that they 
mind a shower of rain no more than the sheep do 
they are selling, while the weather is hopelessly 
dismal, and the sky of one universal leaden hue, as 
if our whole world were under the canopy of a tin 
dish-cover. 



INVERNESS. 137 

We are amused with observing hovr much char- 
acter may be traced in the different ways those in- 
numerable people set about transacting their busi- 
ness. Some are swaggering along, taking every 
man by the button, and looking as patronizing and 
consequential as possible, — others are sneaking about 
as if they had picked a pocket, or intended doing 
so, — some look so sharp and acute, that I would 
feel sure of being overreached by them, if they so 
much as exchanged civilities with me, — one or two 
look as if they could cheat another, if he only tossed 
up with him for sixpence, and others seem perfect 
images of dulness and stupidity, remaining as still 
as if they had been turned into lamp posts. 

I expected to have passed through miles of 
sheep on the road to Inverness, and to have encoun- 
tered myriads in the town ; but not at all ! every 
free and independent flock sends a representative in 
the shape of a drover, who attends to the interests 
of his constituents, and sells them for what he can 
get. Several of these Highland shepherds are very 
" primitive formations," and one I observed, from 
our own country, so large and athletic, he might 
have brought, without much difficulty, a sheep in 
each pocket. This very respectable man, John 
Paterson, who is a well known character in the 
north, began the world as a herd-boy on my father's 
property, and when he drove our flocks from the 
12* 



13S INVERNESS. 

Highlands formerly to market, always managed to 
billet them every night on the fields of our friends 
or relatives. Proprietors were occasionally thunder- 
struck in a morning to behold a shower of sheep 
scattered over their meadows, apparently quite at 
home, while worthy John Paterson thought it a 
perfectly sufficient apology to say they were " Sir 
John's !" He has repeatedly been heard to mention, 
that his own fortune originally amounted only to 
3s. 6d., but now, by honest industry and skilful 
management, it has multiplied into ^£25,000 ! 

Several other instances were pointed out to me, 
in which the rearing of sheep had become an equally 
sucessful speculation, and formerly, my father used 
to tell me, that about the year 1790, he had de- 
clined an offer from Mrs. Mackay, the proprietor of 
Bighouse, who wished him to give her an annuity 
for life of .£300 a year, and to take her estate in 
exchange, which w^as sold not many years after- 
wards for .£50,000, owang to the success of the 
British Wool Society, which he originated and es- 
tablished. The value of Highland property was 
thus so greatly enhanced, that the estate of Reay, 
which previously produced only £1500 a-year, was 
purchased by the late Duke of Sutherland for 
£450,000 ! 

Sheep have their merits, and they now certainly 
fulfil the prophecy of old Thomas the Rhymer six 



INVERNESS. 139 

hundred years ago, that " the teeth of the sheep 
shall lay the plough on the shelf." A whole flock 
must have changed their names to mutton for the 
dinner to-day, as two hundred hungry gentlemen 
drew in their chairs at six, with Mr. Donald Home 
to preside, one of the most popular and convivial 
presidents for such occasions in the north, and he 
filled the chair, or perhaps I should rather say, the 
woolsack, with great eclat, till a late hour. 

It often amuses me to calculate the many years 
of preparation which all necessarily combine to 
produce the grand result of a perfectly well-ordered 
dinner party. In the first place, the very servants 
who wait at table require a long apprenticeship of 
drilling and practice, before they acquire the sort 
of legerdemain and discipline, absolutely essential 
on their part, — then the cook must have been initia- 
ted in the deepest mysteries of his art, and the very 
guests have been taught from infancy, not to eat 
with their knives, and how to conduct a conversa- 
tion in which there must neither be ignorance, pe- 
dantry, flippancy, or dulness. The four quarters of 
the globe also send contributions to the entertain- 
ment, and the wines perform at least one voyage to 
India before Messrs. Cathcart and Ferguson think 
them fit to be issued from their cellars at Leith. 

We hear much discussion now, respecting a 
railway through the vale of Strathmore to Aber- 



140 IISTERNESS. 

deen, so the forests may be trembling on their 
native hills, as a few strokes of the axe will soon 
degrade them into sleepers for the railroads. The 
Duke of Sutherland is said to have gained more 
than .£100,000 by taking a tenth share in the rail- 
way between Birmingham and Liverpool, which 
cost five millions ; but where will money be found 
sufficient to bore tunnels through the great mountains 
of Aberdeenshire, or to raise viaducts between them ? 
We now proceeded on our journey eastward, 
passing Castle Stewart, a tall, narrow, square house, 
built by the Regent Moray, and still most comforta- 
bly habitable, having descended by inheritance to 
the Earl of Moray, who is proprietor of so many 
fine places, he must be at a loss sometimes to re- 
member all their names. A group of thriving old 
cherry-trees flourishes near the castle, transplanted 
from Kent 150 years ago by Alexander Earl of 
Moray. Buchanan mentions, in writing of the 
" Good Regent," that " his house was like a holy 
temple. After meals he caused *a chapter of the 
Bible to be read, and asked the opinions of such 
learned men as were present upon it, not out of 
vain curiosity, but from a desire to learn, and re- 
duce to practice what it contained." The fruits of 
such a life were exhibited in the truly Christian 
spirit of forgiveness with which he met his death, 
on the tragical day of his murder at Linlithgow. 



NAIRN. 141 

"When changing horses at the neat httle city of 
Nairn, I saw, near the inn, that singularly unfortu- 
nate being, James Mitchell, now forty-five years old, 
the son of a clergyman, respecting whom Professor 
Dugald Stewart read an interesting paper once be- 
fore the Royal Society. He is quite an anomaly in 
nature, being born without the faculties of speech, 
sight, or hearing, yet displaying some glimmering 
intelligence of countenance and conduct. His ex- 
istence must be a dreary blank, a living death, 
without ever having enjoyed any of the sights or 
sounds of life, and scarcely having Icnown any of 
its affections. The most persevering and generous 
kindness has been shown him by an amiable sister, 
who invented several ingenious devices for communi- 
cating what she wishes, by the touch of her fingers, 
and she has deservedly obtained considerable influ- 
ence over his naturally passionate and wilful dispo- 
sition. To her he is docile and obedient, but all 
his actions being regulated by mere impulse, na 
idea of duty or principle can be conveyed to his 
mind, his intellect, if he has any, being buried in 
impenetrable darkness. How strange it would be, 
to know what are the thoughts and feelings of such 
a being ! He is said to have an almost preternatu- 
ral acuteness of touch and smell, and his greatest 
delight seems to be derived from handling carriages 
when they stop near the inn, trying the elasticity of 



142 NAIRN. 

their springs, and stroking the horses with great 
caution. He touches and feels whatever is near 
him, and seems gifted with astonishing curiosity, as 
well as some invention, one instance of which is, 
that when he wishes to ride, he places his hand 
under his foot like a stirrup. He kneels during 
family prayer, and when his father died, having 
been led forward to touch the corpse, he shrunk 
back with obvious horror, which may lead us to 
suppose that he has some instinctive apprehension 
of death. From that hour he never would sleep in 
the bed where his father's body had been laid, but 
some time afterwards, he took a stranger into that 
apartment, and laid his own head back on the pillow 
for a moment, having done which, he hurried his 
companion towards the churchyard, and patted his 
father's grave with his hand. How gratefully we 
should enjoy, and carefully improve the faculties 
given to ourselves, when we contrast the blessings 
they bring us, with the mournful state of this poor 
outcast, consigned to perpetual darkness, solitude, 
and silence. We are often apt to think the blind 
more cheerful than the deaf, not considering that 
those who have lost their sight can only be amused 
in society, and are then seen at their best, while 
those who are deprived of hearing, may forget their 
affliction over a book, but are reminded of it perpet- 
ually in company. Did you ever hear of the Irish 



NAIRN. 143 

clergyman who preached for the Bhnd Asylum for- 
merly, and began by gravely remarking, " If all 
the world were blind, what a melancholy sight it 
would be !" 

After passing through Nairn, we crossed " the 
wutches' moor !" where Macbeth had his interview 
with the withered old hags. Their dancing days 
are over now, and besides, we were rather too early 
for their cantrips, or for being favoured with any 
predications of coming greatness to ourselves. No 
grass ever grows where a witch's foot has trod, and 
this " blasted heath" seems bare enough to prove for 
certain, that on the very identical spot we saw they 
appeared, and no other. We carefully kept our 
gravity here, as you are probably aware, that if 
any one smiles on a witch in the Highlands, his 
mouth remains awry for ever afterwards. 

In discussing, for the hundred-thousandth time, 
the marvellous genius of Shakspeare and other ima- 
ginative writers, I could not but lament that many 
sensible persons consider it essential now, in edu- 
cating children, to exclude entirely all works of 
fancy, even when written for sacred purposes, ad- 
hering rigidly to matters of fact, and preserving the 
body without the spirit of thought. All depends, 
no doubt, on the use made of that powerful faculty, 
which may be degraded to vicious purposes or ex- 
alted to the highest, and it was well observed, that as 



144 NAIRN. 

the swan sings before it dies, it would have been 
well if some poets had died before they sung, but 
still, the abuse of a gift in some instances or in many, 
does not warrant its utter extinction, and there are 
uses for the imagination, important, not only to our 
interests in time, but in eternity. The muse of 
poetry has been degraded often to the vilest pur- 
poses, and is yet so consecrated by Milton, Cowper, 
Montgomery, and others, that I could not but com- 
pare the contrast thus afforded, to the vulture's wing 
soaring as high as that of the eagle, but while the 
one shuns the brightness of meridian day, and 
keeps his grovelling eye on earthly objects, the 
other scans the very heavens and fixes his unflinch- 
ing gaze on the dazzling orb of Hght. Religion 
itself is directed more to the imagination than to the 
senses, and I have often thought, in attencUng the 
last sufferings of a Christian's death-bed, how glori- 
ous is the triumph of that which is unseen, over that 
w^hich is endured, when all the agonies of dissolution 
are superseded and nearly forgotten amidst the faith 
and hope with which an unseen eternity has been 
joyfully anticipated, and in the vivid conception of 
that blessedness which " eye hath not seen, nor ear 
heard, neither hath it entered into the heart of man 
to conceive." 

We admired beyond expression the pine-covered 
hills, like those of Norway, and the five miles of 



BRODIE CASTLE. 145 

forest around Darnaway Castle, where the richly 
wooded grounds exhibit trees enough to make a 
railroad round the world. I never now see a plan- 
tation without thinking of the saw-mill, and it is a 
melancholy connection of ideas, like Xerxes weeping 
over his followers, because in fifty years they could 
exist no longer. 

The park round Brodie Castle is charmingly 
wooded. One half of the house is old, like the 
family pedigree, and an elegant new front-breadth 
has been added, giving all the light and comfort 
which very ancient houses so seldom afford, I re- 
cognised Burn's touch at once, for architects, like 
painters, have a style not to be mistaken. The re- 
cent appendix is rapidly assmning an appearance of 
antiquity, and dressing itself up in festoons of ivy, 
which will cause it to harmonize admirably with the 
rest, so that, before many years, they will appear a 
very suitable match. 

The ceiling of one beautiful old room here is 
adorned by the richest dark oak carving in Scotland. 
It would make the fortune of a dozen sideboards 
and cabinets, being sculptured with the minuteness 
of seal-engraving, and there are eagles, cupids, 
unicorns, flowers, and fruit, all in full relief, the 
whole effect being so handsome, that I am scarcely 
surprised the fashion of ornamented roofs has been 
13 



146 BRODIE CASTLE. 

restored, and that people expend more on their cor- 
nices than on their carpets. 

The family portraits here possess an additional 
interest to us, respecting ancestors from whom we 
ourselves are descended, but the first of my progen- 
itors to whom I was introduced, Emilia Brodie, made 
so extraordinary a grimace at me, that I shall never 
forget it. The painter had evidently intended a 
bewitching smile, and hazarded a distortion of fea- 
tures, such as might probably be the effect of eating 
the sourest of all lemons. In another apartment ap- 
peared the beautiful portrait of a young girl about 
sixteen, with whom I hastened to claim kindred, 

when A , in a most provokingly matter-of-fact 

manner, investigated the case, and discovered that it 
was a plain elder sister who married into our family. 

A very animated, but by no means beautiful, 
Flora Macdonald was there, looking like a clever 
schoolmistress, but not by any means realizing my 
previous conception of that celebrcited heroine. 
Here also we admired the twentieth original of 
Charles the First, by Vandyke, which I have seen, 
and the monarch must certainly have sat vis a vis 
to the artist all his life, to produce so interminable 
a succession of portraits, — generally representing 
Charles the First with his head on, and riding a 
melancholy gray horse. It was a strange circum- 



BRODIE CASTLE. 147 

stance, recorded by Lord Southampton, that the 
night after his Majesty's execution, having been 
permitted to watch beside the body, he heard at 
midnight the heavy tread of some one coming up 
stairs, the door then slowly opened, and a man, 
muffled in his cloak and concealing his face, but 
strongly resembling Oliver Cromwell in air and 
voice, approached the bier, gazed at it for some time, 
shook his head, sighed, and withdrew, saying, in a 
melancholy tone, " cruel necessity !" How extraor- 
dinary was the combination of enthusiasm and 
hypocrisy in the Protector's character, " Forced, 
though it grieved his soul, to reign alone !" 

Our connoiseurships thought very highly of one 
fine picture by Murillo, representing, as usual, a boy 
laughing, so extremely natural that you would have 
listened to hear the burst that seems coming. Some 
children were frightened one day while looking at 
it, and said, " that man is always laughing at us !" 
How very early in life, the terror of being laughed 
at commences, and, like most other instincts of 
nature, though useful in moderation, it becomes per- 
nicious in excess. 

Rembrandt was the greatest admirer of wrinkled 
old women who ever held a brush, but in one of his 
pictures here, he condescended to paint a young 
man not yet in the vale of years, and another ex- 
ception to general rule was a portrait actually un- 



148 BRODIE CASTLE. 

faded, by Sir Joshua Reynolds, of a beautiful lady 
and child. 

In the spacious dining-room at Brodie Castle, 
modern portraits and landscapes are hung promis- 
cuously, like a morsel of Somerset House arrived in 
the Highlands, and the subject of one picture in the 
entrance-hall, was what no other artist before or 
since appears ever to have thought of selecting. 
You remember the story of King John ordering a 
Jew's teeth to be all successively drawn, till he con- 
fessed where his treasures were concealed, and here 
he is, in the very act of endurance, represented so 
naturally that I almost heard him scream. If 
Hutchins or Nasmyth had been the operators, he 
might have kept his secret for ever, as patients have 
declared they scarcely knew when the deed was 
done, while some even protest it is almost a plea- 
sure, but this painting commemorated tooth-drawing 
in the old school, and seemed so horribly true to life, 
I should soon have felt a toothache with looking at it. 

I have often wondered how it happens that den- 
tists are almost invariably great encouragers of 
sculpture and painting ! We lately heard, that 
when Cartwright, who makes one of the largest 
professional fortunes in London, bespoke a picture 
by Landseer, he enclosed him in payment a blank 
order on the Bank of England, to be filled up a dis^ 
cretion ! and the wife of a celebrated dentist, some 



FORRES. 149 

time since, out-bid every competitor, for some beau- 
tiful work of art, which was long and keenly con- 
tested, but I could not help laughing when told, that 
in the triumph of success, she exclaimed, " It will 
be of great use to divert our patients in the opera- 
tion room !" I scarcely think even Hogarth could 
succeed there; but this representation of the Jew 
would serve as very appropriate scenery and deco- 
ration for such a torture chamber. 

"How far is't call'd to Forres 1" Shakspeare, 
hem ! The town of Forres may be recognised at 
any distance, or in any picture, by the round, hedge- 
hog-shaped hill of Clunie, which raises its dark 
well-covered head immediately behind the streets, 
surmounted by another of the many ugly monuments 
by wliich Nelson's memory has been commemo- 
rated. I wish people had more taste ! We toiled 
up twice in one day to admire a splendid view from 
the summit of this eminence, and, when the sun was 

setting in brilliant style, A had the barbarity 

to propose a third expedition, but there are limits to 
what a rational being can undertake, and I sighed 
over the hill instead of ascending it. 

Not quite half a mile from Forres, stands pro- 
bably the most ancient piece of history in Great 
Britain. To commemorate the final retreat from 
Scotland of the Danish king Sueno, a dark gray 
stone was erected, measuring about twenty feet 
13* 



150 FORRES. 

perpendicularly above ground, and supposed to 
penetrate almost equally far underneath. The 
whole shaft is in one unbroken piece, and must have 
travelled from some unknown distance, as no such 
stone can be found in all that neighbourhood. On 
the surface is carved a hieroglyphic representation 
of the whole Danish army, some on foot and others 
on horseback, some with heads, and others without, 
the drawing and execution being nearly equal to 
what may be seen on cakes of gingerbread at a fair. 
The material is so very hard a granite, that those 
who executed the devices must have possessed strong 
hands and good chisels. Few works of man have 
remained so long unchanged on this earth, where 
" monuments themselves memorials need," while the 
frail beings who raised it, could scarcely have anti- 
cipated how many ages would roll over their for- 
gotten graves, w^hile this only record should remain 
of their ever having existed at all. 

Being much interested in this very ancient relic, 
I hurried to the landlady at Forres, with a multitude 
of questions about her venerable neighbour, but she 
civilly replied, with a look of indifference, " I've 
often he'erd tell of that auld stane, but I never saw 

it !" A wished her to start off instantly, as the 

evening was fine, that not another day might be 
added to the many she had already lost, but we 
could not light up a single spark of interest or en- 



SANQUHAR HOUSE. 151 

thusiasm ! A dish of whipped cream would have 
excited her curiosity ten times more ardently, and 
the hoary pillar of Forres may stand there as long 
as it has stood already, before she moves a yard to 
behold it ! Our hostess would make an exemplary 
quaker, as one of their superstitions is never to go 
sight-seeing, probably thinking, that after female 
curiosity having done so much harm originally, it 
should always now be kept in check. I once asked 
a quaker lady, recently returned from Orkney, what 
she thought of the fine cathedral at Kirkwall, when 
she replied, with a cold reproving look, " I believe 
we passed it!" The quakers have a rule also 
against dressed dishes, and their whole dinners con- 
sist of plain joints, apparently on the plan of your 
friend who always ordered an additional chicken for 
every additional visiter, till at last sixteen hungry 
guests sat down to sixteen roasted fowls ; but this 
would not have suited our good landlady, who is by 
no means of the Mary Stedman school, but was 
quite a " professed cook." She had acted the part 
of Mrs. Couch or Pouch for many years at Brodie 
Castle, and sent us up for dinner a complete page 
of Mrs. Glass, or Meg Dodds, copied to the very 
life. 

Sanquhar House, near Forres, the property of 
Mr. Fraser Tytler, is very charmingly situated, com- 
manding a fine view of nearly a whole county, and 



152 DARNAWAY CASTLE. 

of a rich landscape, reaching even to the Caithness 
hills. The house itself is rather too much in the 
gable-end school of architecture to suit my fancy, 
but it may perhaps please other people. A former 
proprietor of this estate became bankrupt, sold the 
estate, and, in his old age, wandered as a beggar to 
that very door where once he had been proprietor ! 
Many would rather have starved. 

We remained all Sunday at Forres, and next 
morning hired horses for the day, to see how much 
of this neighbourhood they could contrive to show 
us. You may remember the old lady who used to 
say that " if she killed a pair of post-horses with 
fatigue one day, they came alive the next morning," 
and really ours achieved wonders yesterday, though 
I forgot to ask whether to-day they had been re- 
suscitated or not. 

When we were about to proceed, under a bril- 
liant sunshine, towards Darnaway Castle, notice was 
brought, that during the late hurricane, so many 
trees had been blown down across the new approach, 
the road was impassable. This threatened a com- 
plete discomfiture, but fortunately we were driven 
by an old experienced post-boy — drivers remain 
always boys — who had plied backwards and for- 
wards here during thirty years. He took us towards 
a gate, flanked by a large arbitrary ticket, forbidding 
all access for carriages in that direction, but he 



DARNAWAY CASTLE. 153 

pointed at it contemptuously with the end of his whip, 
saying, in a triumphant tone, " We'll get through 
for a' that !" Accordingly our daring wheels rolled 
on iminterruptedly, and the very difficulties added 
to my enjoyment on finally succeeding. The park 
scenery is here magnificent — such immeasurable ex- 
tent, and such an unbounded profusion of trees, 
though none are of very pre-eminent size, and is 
framed in by a great fir forest, by the ocean, and by 
the distant mountains of Sutherland and Caithness. 
Lord Moray's family motto is a key to all reli- 
gion, " Salvation through Christ the Redeemer ;" 
and it is a remarkable circumstance, that the late 
earl had his coffin prepared, and constantly kept in 
his bed-room, during many years previous to his 
death, which must certainly have acted as a per- 
petual admonition, though one of the greatest mys- 
teries in our nature is, the impossibility, almost, of 
realizing that we are ourselves to die, even though 
we make it oxir daily duty to reflect on it and to be 
ready. It seems easily said, and frequently talked 
of, that death is inevitable, but to feel the actual 
consciousness that this busy world shall go on as 
busily for ages after we are buried, as it did for the 
ages before we were born — that our bodies shall be 
imprisoned for centuries, perhaps, in dark and dreary 
separation from the soul, and that our spirits, in the 
meantime, shall awake to instant consciousness. 



154 DARNAWAY CASTLE. 

amidst a scene unutterably wonderful, where we 
must for ever and ever exist — all this bursts upon 
our thoughts occasionally, with that awe and aston- 
ishment which it is fitted to create, but amidst the 
varied occupations of life, how often it seems as new 
and surprising in all its solemn reality, as if we had 
never before imagined that death could be to us in- 
dividually, as real as it has been to others, and that 
we are hurrying along on the irresistible tide which 
shall plunge us into eternity. 

Darnaway Castle is about thirty years of age, 
and no great beauty in external aspect. Though 
built of the very finest freestone, in a situation ex- 
ceedingly magnificent, yet taking it as a house, this 
large pile of building is more handsome than beau- 
tiful. The front is Grecian, the ornaments over the 
windows Gothic, and the turrets are like eau-de- 
Cologne bottles. The point of chief interest at 
Darnaway Castle is Randolph's Hall, built by the 
celebrated nephew of Robert Bruce, a fine baronial 
apartment five centuries old, in magnificent propor- 
tion, being more than a hundred feet long. It is 
canopied thirty feet high by an arched roof of oak, 
like that of Westminster Hall, perfectly blackened 
by time, and it is floored with stone flags. The in- 
ternal appearance resembles that of a fine old parish 
church without pews, and the only seats consist of 
some very antique benches, with richly carved sides, 



DARNAWAY CASTLE. 155 

and various extraordinary oak chairs, all of differ- 
ent shapes, and carved in a variety of whimsical pat- 
terns. These seats were assuredly used before the 
word " comfort" had been invented. If such chairs 
were still in universal fashion, fewer country gen- 
tlemen would become sleepy and apoplectic after 
dinner, as, instead of spring cushions, the very seats 
are elaborately carved, and looked by no means 
inviting to sit upon. 

Lord Randolph's table is also in a very unso- 
phisticated style, being nearly as it came originally 
from the neighbouring forest, and every thing with- 
in this primitive old hall is formed of these two ma- 
terials, wood and stone. Most unfortunately the 
architect who spoiled the new house, thought it ne- 
cessary to spoil the old one also, and he has exhib- 
ited his taste by modernizing the windows into 
something very like those of a dissenting chapel, 
and, dreadful to relate, the grand sweep of an arch, 
which once formed the chimney, and where a car- 
riage might almost have been turned round, is now 
lowered and narrowed, so that an ox would find 
some difficulty in being roasted whole there. Very 
few architects are fit to be trusted in an ancient 
house, for the new parts too often say no to the an- 
tiquity of the old. A painter might as well have 
attempted to touch up a Raphael, as a modern builder 
to improve Randolph's Hall, but builders all run 



156 DARNAWAY CASTLE. 

mad whenever they get into an old house, and either 
knock down, mutilate, or disfigure it. 

The ancestors at Darnaway Castle have a more 
aristocratic air than in most other places, all having 
sat, apparently, to the best artists, in the full dress 
trappings of their rank and station, stars, ribbons, 
robes, and garters, looking " every inch a peer." 
Some of the ladies wore large elaborate ruffs, so 
white and stiff, you might have fancied their heads 
were placed on silver salvers, and one collar, in 
particular, we noticed, which a modern milliner 
might have despaired of imitating, while the lady's 
face who wore it, had faded so much, that she 
seemed sitting in a fainting fit. 

The most curious portrait of all was Queen 
Mary, disguised, by way of a frolic, in boy's clothes ! 
She wore long scarlet stockings, black velvet coat, 
black kilt, white sleeves, and such a ruff! Her 
Majesty was looking as grave and serious upon 
this extraordinary piece of jocularity, as if she had 
been receiving the reproof she merited from John 
Knox. 

We ended our inspection of Darnaway Castle 
as usual on the roof, which displays a perfect map 
of Scotland, from the best authorities. I dare not 
guess how many counties we saw at once, including 
fifty miles of hilly coast, a world of wood extending 
twenty miles, the sea, and a circle of snow-speckled 



DARNAWAY CASTLE. 157 

movmtains. On an eminence like this, we ought to 
borrow the eyes of an eagle. 

A vei-y celebrated and beautiful heronry belongs 
to Lord Moray near this, on the Findhorn, and when 
I stood upon the towering pinnacles, two hundred 
feet high, from which the birds may be watched to 
most advantage, the river, rocks, and wood, seemed 
an exact counterpart of Wyndcliff on the Wye, quite 
magnificently romantic. A shouted and clap- 
ped his hands, after which more than a hundred 
herons took wing, and soared through the air at so 
slow and dignified a rate, that they might easily 
have been shot, though herons are so tenacious of 
life, that they have generally to be fired at twice, or 
even oftener. After being wounded, these birds are 
very unsafe to deal with, because they fly at a 
sportsman with fury, endeavouring to peck out his 
eyes, and their strength is considerable, as a heron 
can carry with ease to his nest, a fish, weighing up- 
wards of a pound. Each nest seemed almost large 
enough to hold a moderate sized man, and I counted 
above twenty nests in one elm, which must be apt 
to break down the branches, some of which are so 
festooned with them, that you might fancy a fishing 
net had been suspended over all the trees. The 
whole colony interested me extremely, and I felt 

quite sorry when A came up at last, like one 

of the London police, desiring me to " move on." 
14 



158 ALTYRE. 

Our next step was through a scene of ahnost 
unearthly beauty, to Altyre, the most lovely and 
loveable place you can conceive, belonging to Sir 
William Gumming Gordon, chief of the clan Gum- 
ming, and representative of the old Lords of Bade- 
noch. The house is a perfect cluster of arbours and 
green-houses, apparently meant for the muses and 
graces, for pleasure, gayety, and romance, but never 
intended for the mere vulgar, ordinary purposes of 
life. Within, without, and around, you see nothing 
but flowers rushing in at every window, and beset- 
tino- all the doors. This is the court of Flora her- 
self, and you would suppose we had come for a hor- 
ticultural show ! 

The approach commences through a dark fii-- 
wood, springing up amidst purple heath ; and grad- 
ually, as we advanced, the grounds became enriched 
with evergreens, varied by forest trees, and bor- 
dered with turf round the house. The green lawn 
is like Genoa velvet, studded with fuschias, gerani- 
ums, carnations, every flower, in short, that has a 
name, overshadowed by graceful walnut trees, and 
the entrance hall emits the fragrance and atmos- 
phere of a conservatory. Your friend, who said she 
could not sleep for three nights after seeing a better 
garden than her own, would never have closed an 
eye had she visited at Altyre. What do the quakers 
think of Nature for dressing in such gaudy colours ? 



ALTYRE. 159 

But, as Dr. Johnson says, " a man who is unfit for 
a better world in a blue coat, is not very likely to 
go there in a gray." It is a perpetual miracle cer- 
tainly, to see the dark, dingy earth, hourly produ- 
cing those brilliant and fragrant blossoms with 
which such a scene is decorated, like our own 
barren minds, in which there is no good by nature, 
and which require the seed to be sown in them, and 
the sunshine of heaven to nourish those flow^ers of 
excellence, and those fruits of holiness, which can 
alone render them lovely or attractive. 

In the garden of Eden, probably, the flowers 
never would have faded, but they suffer the penalty, 
like all creation, of our frailty and guilt. It is very 
remarkable, that no flower is perfectly black ! they 
are the toys and gems of nature, given as an inno- 
cent recreation, suited to every age and every rank, 
equally calculated for our seasons of joy or of 
sorrow — of sickness or of health. Though the 
moral lesson that they teach speaks of short-hved 
prosperity, decay, and death, for truly " the loveliest 
things on earth are those that soonest fade away ;" 
yet these touching recollections are brought to mind 
under an aspect of beauty and cheerfulness, calcu- 
lated to testify with how much bounty and goodness 
the pleasures of life are sent to alleviate its sorrows. 
Those who find the thorns of life unembellished by 
its flowers, may generally blame themselves for 



160 ALTYRE. 

seeking in the artificial dissipations of the world, 
what can be found only in those natural enjoyments 
provided for us by our wise and beneficent Creator. 
Moral writers have often remarked, that the gay 
and transient flowers are scattered on the world's 
surface, while the more precious and durable metals 
must be laboriously dug for ; but, while the deepest 
mines should be explored, the lovely blossoms need 
not be neglected, and I never enjoy a flower-garden 
like this, without feeling convinced it aflfords one of 
the few amusements of which it would be impos- 
sible to tire. The bee sipping its draught in every 
flower, scarcely obeys the instinct of nature more 
naturally than we do when inhaling their fragrance, 
and admiring their lovely forms ; and the Bible re- 
peatedly directs our devout attention to flowers. 
How truly may we say, when contemplating a 
richly decorated garden, " Solomon, in all his glory, 
was not arrayed like one of these !" 

" How happily, how happily the flowers die away ! 
Oh ! could we but return to earth as easily as they ; 
Just live a life of sunshine, of innocence, and bloom, 
Then drop without decrepitude or pain into the tomb." 

This busy day seemed a fortnight long, we said, 
did, and saw so much. I pity every body who has 
not seen Altyre, and was shocked to hear that a 
situation has been fixed on for a new house ; but if 



MOY HOUSE. 161 

the old one be deserted, the Queen of the Fairies 
will certainly take possession, as it seems already- 
fitted up on purpose for her summer residence. 

We dined with the Miss Cummings at Moy 
House, where the old garden enchanted me, being 
ornamented with the finest "gmn," alias wild 
cheriy, trees in Scotland, which had attained the 
size of respectable forest trees, and were bending 
beneath the weight of their fruit ; and here, during 
last summer, by no means commendable for being 
either warm or dry, peaches ripened in abundance 
on the open, unflued wall ! The gardener at Moy 
gained a prize this season for that curious plant, the 
Hoya Carnosa, the large clustering flowers of which 
resemble a ready made honeycomb, with a drop of 
honey hanging from each petal, the whole being 
modelled in a substance so exactly resembling wax, 
that you might almost make it into candles. The 
bees would give over working if they saw this 
flower, and no plant was ever more easily propa- 
gated, seeing that a single green leaf, carelessly 
stuck in the ground, will take root, and become fit 
for a horticultural show before the following year. 

Moy House belonged, in the previous generation, 
to an old humourist, who became so indignant at his 
next heir, Mr. Grant, then of Red Castle, for calling 
on him one day, in a carriage and four, that he 
altered his will, bequeathing his property to a per- 
14* 



162 MOY HOUSE. 

fectly different Mr. Grant, who was probably satis- 
fied with a chaise and pair. We heard of a more 
prudent and successful heir presumptive elsewhere, 
who always left his equipage at the neighbouring 
inn, put on a shabby coat, and walked, stick in 
hand, to the house, a plan much to be recommended 
where an eccentric old gentleman is in question. 
Wills and marriages are both generally sp very 
whimsical and unaccountable, that I have ceased to 
wonder at either ; and if ever wealthy old people 
are to exhibit caprice and bad feeling, it seems 
chiefly reserved for the last will. There must be a 
great degree of infidelity in those w^ho leave behind 
them a testament which they would be ashamed 
while alive, that the world should see, not apparent- 
ly reflecting, that when this posthumous deed is 
read, the testator shall be already in the presence 
of a Holy God, who condemns every angry feeling, 
and who will make us responsible for the conscien- 
tious disposal of all we have, and all we leave 
behind. 

A gentleman who had been whistling by the 
fireside for an hour one day, beside a numerous cir- 
cle of visiters, at last exclaimed, as if bringing forth 
the result of his meditations, " I wonder nobody 
ever left me any money !" This is a subject of 
wonder often, I dare say, to others who say less 
about it, but, like all earthly pleasures, even a legacy 



MOY HOUSE. 163 

has its drawbacks, as it implies the loss of a friend 
whose attachment was far more precious, and, there- 
fore, even for the most mercenary this is the last 
way in which one could desire to grow rich. When 
a lady remarked once, what a pleasure it would he, 
succeeding unexpectedly to some rich relation whom 
you did not care for, another very coolly replied, 
" Or to one you do care for ! it would be all one in 
a month ! look at the sons and brothers who inherit 
estates !" It certainly would be curious if, by 
magical agency, the hue of people's dress could be- 
come in exact accordance with the hue of their 
spirits ! Then it would be seen that those who 
seem gay, cheerful, and reckless, are frequently suf- 
fering under the darkest despondency, while in the 
case of successions it w^ould often become obvious 
that there had been more bombazine and crape than 
real sorrow ; but I wish the old proprietor of Moy 
had seen us arrive in our humble chaise, and be- 
queathed me this smiling place, so well-wooded, so 
highly cultivated, and altogether so enjoyable. 
Perhaps what contributed most of all to make me 
like this house might be, the pleasant circle within 
doors, which would make any residence dehghtful ; 
but the cmtain has dropped over it, and the sunshine 
of that evening must live only in my memory, where 
it will always remain as a pleasing remembrance. 
The motto of our family, " J'aime le mellieur," is 



164 MOY HOUSE. 

certainly my case in respect to the society we meet, 
and we have hitherto been very fortunate. A 
coachmaker once, by mistake, altered, most distress- 
ingly, the meaning of these words on our shield, by 
substituting an inscription with which our carriage 
drove about for several years, but I believe the poor 
man did not really mean any jest when he painted 
it " Jamais le mellieur !" 

I remain, 

For self and partner, 

Yours. 



MORAYSHIRE 



The braes ascend like lofty wa's, 
The foamin' stream deep roaring fa's 
O'erhung \vi' fragrant spreading shaws. 

Burns. 

My dear Cousin, — As there are said to be fif- 
teen days more of summer in Morayshire, than in 
any other part of Scotland, we seem to have ob- 
tained a lease of them all at once ! The weather 
has been most enchanting lately, and is altogether 
doing the civil thing by us, being exactly such as 
we require for perfect happiness. I remember the 
time, when you and I used to wish the weather of 
the whole world might be regulated so as to suit 
our one solitary geranium in a flower-pot ; and how 
apt I am still to think, if the fields be burned as dry 
and brown as a slice of toast, that it matters little, 
provided my own bonnet escape a shower, though, 
I dare say, the farmers would vote me a new one, 
rather than do without rain another day. It is 
lucky we are not allowed a voice on the subject, 
for even sunshine itself might be indulged in to 
excess. 

We have this day enjoyed, at Reluglas, the 



166 MORAYSHIRE. 

highest perfection of glen scenery, quite an exag- 
geration of RosUn, formerly belonging to one of our 
leading Whig orators, and the author of several 
very popular works. Sir Thomas Dick Lauder, but 
recently purchased by Mr. M'Killigan, a native of 
this neighbourhood. We were told, that from his 
earliest years, he had almost hopelessly desired to 
possess this exquisite place, and after realizing an 
adequate sum, during one successful voyage to 
China, by a happy coincidence he returned at the 
very time it was sold, and realized his juvenile cas- 
tle in the air. Who would not go to China to-mor- 
row for so delightful a result 1 It is seldom men 
gain so precisely the point they aim at, and I hope 
the new proprietor may long continue to enjoy it 
as he does now, and to embellish the place as taste- 
fully as he has begun. The grounds are covered 
with a perfect eruption of roses, besides being studded 
over with rare plants of great value, and of most 
uncommon aspect, imported by Mr. M'Killigan him- 
self The Horticultural Society of London, when 
vainly trying to naturalize the beautiful variegated 
azalia, of which we saw several plants quite at 
home here, expended no less than .£300, while Mr. 
Wright, a nurseryman, paid .£100 for one speci- 
men, and has since realized jEIOOO by propagating 
and selling it. 

The interior of this house is beautifully fitted up 



RELUGLAS. 167 

^vlth English comfort and Asiatic decorations, but 
the collection of corals alone might occupy agreea- 
bly more hours than we could spend on the entire 
place. They resemble the minutest carvings in 
ivory, some representing a little forest of plants, 
while others were little circular worlds, formed by 
a combination among myriads of living atoms, which 
thus raise habitations for themselves, and increase 
their nimaber, till at last they gradually expand to 
such a bulk, that they become islands large enough 
for man himself to exist on ! What will not perse- 
verance do ! One coral island, examined by Cap- 
tain Beechy, was thirty miles in diameter, and many 
of the South Sea islands began their existence in the 
w^orld on a scale not larger than those masses of 
coral which we weighed in our hands. What a 
lesson this might be on the importance of little 
things ! drops make the ocean, moments make the 
year, and trifles life. 

At Reluglas, the small remains of an ancient 
vitrified fort, served as a treat to antiquaries formerly, 
but the gardener once, in a fit of ingenuity, thought 
he could improve this old relic by building a massy 
wall round the spot, over which he scattered a top- 
dressing of the vitrified material, looking like frag- 
ments of broken bottles, and now the whole is me- 
tamorphosed into a perfect deformity. 

Travellers who merely skirt along the highroads 



168 RELUGLAS. 

of Scotland, can form no conception how much they 
miss by not tracing up such glens as those of the 
Findhorn and Divie, bounded by banks, hills, forests, 
and heath-covered mountains, without one barren 
spot to disfigure the landscape. The whole scene 
is enlivened too, by places which are the very ro- 
mance of Highland residences, every one fit to form, 
the frontispiece to any poem you ever read. We 
might imagine the house of Reluglas had wandered 
over from Switzerland, with its overhanging roof, 
like a slouched hat, and its deep casements, trimmetjM 
with fliowers, while the elegant mansion of Dunphail, 
built on a plan by Playfair, seems inside and out as 
if it were imported ready-made from Italy. Do you 
remember our being diverted once at a lady who 
had spent a summer at Naples, and came home, 
completely Italianized, saying to you at dinner, 
soon aftei'wards, in a tone of disgust, "Fancy me 
with my Italian appetite, set down to roast beeef !" 
But here she might have lived in happy content- 
ment, surrounded by books, pictures, ornaments, 
every thing, — even the very sky, Italian. 

Nothing is more surprising, in these glens, than 
to observe the clever way in which trees contrive 
to root themselves on stones, when they have liter- 
ally nothing but the rifted rocks to hold by, and to 
live upon. The fibres are at first no larger than 
bits of thread, penetrating every crevice, and grad- 



DUNPHAIL. 169 

ually enlarging into cables, till at length they be- 
come strong enough to elbow the very rocks from 
their stations. Many large blocks of stone have 
thus been precipitated downwards, while the trees, 
clasping and riveting their arms around the remain- 
ing rocks, look down into the abyss beneath, and 
cling to their places with the tenacity of a states- 
man. 

The grounds at Dunphail are of a softer and 
more English character than those of Reluglas ; the 
verdant hills, opening with a graceful sweep on 
each side, and charmingly varied by a crowd of dis- 
tant foliage, while near the house we admired 
groups of prodigious forest trees, as round and grace- 
ful as ostrich feathers. When the wind blew over 
their lofty tops, and bent them towards the earth, I 
could not but think, how apt an emblem they ex- 
hibit of our own minds, so easily agitated, so soon 
almost prostrated by the sweeping blast of sorrow or 
misfortune, yet so speedily restored again to that 
comparative rest and peace which are habitual to 
those who can rightly apply that sacred text, " The 
wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the 
sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, 
and whither it goeth : so is every one that is born 
of the Spirit." 

The river here is truly enchanting, and we saw 
from the house of Dimphail, a beautifully situated 
15 



170 DUNPHAIL. 

ruinous castle, surrounded by a deep ravine, to which 
belongs a fine old tradition, worth its weight in 
gold. The story has been potted and preserved so 
long, that you must try a taste of it now ; and I 
liked beyond measure thus to read the book of his- 
tory, in folio, by standing on the very spot where all 
its events actually occurred, and almost beholding 
the very individuals living, acting, and dying, as 
they did many centuries ago. I often think, what 
an extraordinary picture gallery it would make, if 
a representation were supernaturally to appear on 
the silent walls of every old building, showing the 
strange scenes they have witnessed since the hour of 
their being built. The very rooms we ourselves 
daily inhabit, could testify of joys and sorrows, now 
for ever forgotten, which once agitated the hearts 
of many lying at rest in the tomb ; and those walls 
which have echoed the laughter orthegrief of those 
who are no more, and of those who yet survive, will 
hereafter be the property of unborn generations, to 
whom our existence will be a tale of old times. 

These thoughts on our own unconsciousness of 
what once passed within the walls around us, were 
particularly impressed upon me some years ago, 
when we heard that a family who had hired a coun- 
try residence near Edinburgh, where they enjoyed 
many cheerful hours round the fireside, having oc- 
casion once to lift the drawing-room hearth-stone, 



DUNPHAIL. 171 

were startled and shocked to find immediately under- 
neath, the ghastly spectacle of a skeleton in chains ! 
This house had belonged to Chesely of Dairy, who 
was hanged for assassinating Lockhart of Carnwath, 
the president of the Court of Sessions, and the crim- 
inal's own family having stolen the body off the 
gallows, had privately buried it there. So frightful 
a spectacle was like some apparition from another 
world J but nothing so terrifying appeared in the 
old castle of Dunphail, formerly the scene of many 
bold and daring actions. 

The Cummings were among the greatest and 
bravest of all the Highland clans ; and King Robert 
Bruce, who wished to exterminate them, created 
Randolph, his own nephew, Earl of Moray, and 
being in a generous mood, granted him this estate. 
Old Gumming of Dunphail, not seeing the eligibility 
of that arrangement, resisted the transfer, and sus- 
tained a long siege within this castle. Meantime 
his son, Alister Bane, a young man of extraordinary 
enterprise and courage, preserved the famishing 
garrison alive, by seizing opportunities occasionally 
to throw in sacks of oatmeal across a deep fissure in 
the rocks which we were shown. The enemy vainly 
endeavom-ed to detect the place of his concealment, 
until they brought a bloodhound to the spot, which 
tracked him through the woods. Here we traced 
every step of the ravine ourselves, till we reached 



172 DUNPHML. 

the fatal cave where he was overtaken, the entrance 
being no larger than that of a dog kennel, and there 
his enemies lighted a fire that he might he smoked 
to death. The young hero, seeing his fate inevita- 
ble, attempted to come forth, saying, " Let me out 
to die like a Gumming, sword in hand !" But Lord 
Randolph cruelly thrust him back, and replied, " No ! 
die like a wolf as you are !" 

The head of Alister Bane was cut off, and car- 
ried to a rock opposite, where old Gumming stood, 
expecting the arrival of his son with provisions, and 
there the enemy threw it at his feet, calling out, in 
an insulting tone, " Here's beef for yom^ bannocks!" 
The wretched father recognised his son, and ex- 
claimed, in an agony of rage and grief, " This is a 
bone to pick that you shall rue !" Discouraged, 
however, and subdued by so frightful a calamity, the 
old man struggled no longer, but yielded to his 
fate, and was put to death, with his forty faithful 
clansmen. Their heads were stuck up in terrorem 
at Elgin, and their mutilated bodies thrust into a 
cairn near the spot where they fell, which was 
shown ever afterwards as " the tomb of the headless 
Cummings." A few years since, the parish clergy- 
man caused the skeletons to be dug up, and carefully 
buried in a distant church-yard, at the risk of des- 
troying the evidence of this melancholy tale. Not 
a single skull was found on that occasion, and I am 



DUNPHAIL. 173 

always glad when proof can be brought, that tradi- 
tion really has spoken the truth, though I cannot 
but wish that the massacred clan had remonstrated 
as successfully with their murderers, as the Baron of 
Leys, " My head is a thing I cannot well want." 

It is curious, that after a lapse of five hundred 
years, this beautiful estate has again returned to the 
rightful clan, while the names of both contending 
parties are now united in the present proprietor, 
Mr. Gumming Bruce. 

The same glen at Dunphail became afterwards 
celebrated as the refuge of a daring robber, whose 
well selected abode, in the cleft of the rock, we in- 
spected ; and this valley is now inhabited by a 
couple of white fairies, who glide gracefully about 
at night among the plantations, and the belief of 
their existence diffused around the neighbourhood 
is more effectual than either man-traps or springs 
guns for keeping off poachers. 

Strangers in this neighbourhood may be some- 
times perplexed to hear how familiarly the inhabi- 
tants talk of what happened to themselves " before 
and after the flood !" not perhaps recollecting the 
extraordinary inundations in Morayshire eleven 
years ago, w^hen houses, bridges, castles, villages, 
and inhabitants were all nearly swept from their 
foundations, and involved in one common ruin. 
Many people wish to be envied for their good for- 
X5* 



174 DU>fPHAIL. 

tune, but if that be out of the question, then the next 
pleasure in Hfe is to excite very great pity, and for 
that purpose a calamity like this ought to be made 
the most of. Sir Thomas Dick Lauder's volume did 
wonders, and really plunged me into a perfect cold 
bath when I read it ; but he has got into consider- 
able disgrace with one family, for having rather 
spitefully under-stated their losses, and though he 
nearly drowned them all, it is by no means consid- 
ered satisfactory. 

The scene at Dunphait on this occasion was de- 
scribed to me as being like a great shipwreck. The 
tumultuous Divie rushing like a wall of water down 
the glen, and sweeping away in its mad career 
bridges, mills, trees, cattle, and cottages, to the 
value of j£5000. The very house itself was besieg- 
ed by the raging stream, and though its foundation 
is high and rocky, the inhabitants were advised to 
hasten out for safety, which they all did with the 
exception of a Highland dairy-maid, who insisted 
with great courage on remaining, because it is con- 
sidered " unlucky" to desert a house entirely. No 
persuasion could induce her to move, so she was 
forcibly ejected, and the proprietor himself remained 
alone, to garrison the walls and to watch over the 
fate of his beautiful residence. The water rose 
higher and higher, the night had closed in darkness, 
and the rock was crumbling fast away to within a 



BALGOWTSriE. 175 

few feet of the corner wall, when suddenly a distant 
bank broke down on an opposite side of the stream, 
the current was thus unexpectedly drained off, and 
the half-drowned house has now been restored by 
the Humane Society to all its former life and love- 
liness. At Ballindalloch, on the confluence of the 
Avon and Spey, Sir George Macpherson Grant 
found a carpet of gravel laid down in his dining- 
room, and Spey salmon actually swimming about 
alive in the kitchen ! In one village all the inhabi- 
tants had to save themselves on rafts, and in many 
farms the soil and crops sailed away, like floating 
islands, to the ocean, which also received on that 
day a valuable and unexpected cargo of hay-ricks, 
sheep, chairs, eight-day clocks, tables, and every 
variety of household furniture, moveables and fix- 
tures. Nothing was half so remarkable in this ex- 
traordinary calamity, as the courageous activity with 
which the bold Highlanders met their misfortune, 
testifying a heroic degree of Christian resignation 
amidst unexpected ruin, and even in some affecting 
instances encountering death itself. One poor man 
risked his life to regain his spectacles, "because 
without them he could not read his Bible !" The 
brave old bridge of Balgownie, on the Don, five 
hundred years old, put all younger structures to 
shame, being almost the only one that withstood the 
shock. It w^as built by Bishop Elphinstone, and 



176 BALGOWXIE. 

endowed with a benefaction of <£2 per annum, 
which has accumulated, under the trusty manage- 
ment of the good magistrates at Aberdeen, to no 
less a sum than <£S000. I wish they would take 
your affairs and mine in trust also ! It is a curious 
Highland superstition, that friends or lovers who 
part on a bridge never meet again ! If my letter 
were to stop on the bridge of Balgownie you would 
probably never hear from me more, so I must add 
one little appendix to this subject. 

The former proprietor of Reluglas wishing very 
naturally to commemorate the wonderful height to 
which the Findhorn and Divie then rose, placed a 
stone at the proper place, with an inscription to tes- 
tify that there the two streams actually met, but a 
mischievous traveller lately rooted up the stone and 
carried it to a perfectly incredible eminence, where 
it now stands gravely informing us that here is the 
level to which the water rose. I make a point of 
believing every thing, but was certainly rather as- 
tonished how a living being had escaped ! Since 
then, however, that difficulty has been solved on the 
best authority, and the stone turns out to be some- 
what of the nature of a tomb stone, which is apt to 
exa";o^erate. 

People who journalize their travels generally 
become unsupportably dull, by attempting the sub- 
lime, but I have rather kept to the ridiculous on 



BALGOWNIE. 177 

this occasion, though with a more ambitious pen 
the Morayshire floods could have been worked up 
to a perfect Niagara. Pray consider yourself as 
owing a visit to this neighbourhood until you have 
paid one, which will not be your last or only de- 
scent on a county so truly interesting, with its proud- 
looking castles, its cottages of gentility, and all the 
triumphs of nature and of art, with which it is 
adorned. As the old song says, " I'll make you be 
fain to follow me !" 



CASTLE GRANT. 



There needs na' be sae great a phrase 
Wi' droning dull Italian lays: 
I wad na gi'e our ain strathspeys 

For half a hundred score o' 'em. 

Burns. 

My dear Cousin, — ^Your life seems as uniform 
at present as the pendulum of a clock, but from 
your description it must be nearly as useful. In fact, 
without meaning to be vain, I am like the minute 
hand, making a complete circle, during the time 
you take to revolve an inch or two, though the 
chief interest of my movements arises from knowing 
that you are behind the scenes to partake of them. 

We this day diverged twenty miles off our road, 
to inspect that strange old place. Castle Grant, be- 
longing to the Earl of Seafield j a prodigious chief- 
tain-like edifice, surrounded by grim-looking moun- 
tains, and grim-looking fir trees, and filled with 
grim-looking ancestors. Truly as " the dark build- 
ing o'er the valley frown'd," it looked like the 
stronghold of some great freebooter, which you 
might feel terrified to approach after dark. Mrs. 
Radcliffe would have been quite at home here, and 



CASTLE GRANT. 179 

I could write a melo-drama myself on the spot; 
— " Enter Rudolpko, cautiously, loith pistols — 

Hark ! /" now fancy the rest, one or two 

murders, an apparition, plenty of poison, and sev- 
eral executions. 

We were hurrying along the high-road to take 
a glance at this ancient fossil of a castle, when a 
respectable looking old man stopped us, touched 
his bonnet with a soldier-like air, and said to 

A , in a most deferential manner, " Would you 

be offended, sir, if I were speaking to you ?" 

We both looked extremely encouraging, so he 
added in a still more earnest voice, " I have served 
in the four quarters of the globe, sir ! at St. Helena, 
St. Jago, South America, Corunna, and the West 
Indies !" 

My purse now began to quiver in my reticule, 
thinking of course this was a case of begging, and 
I even settled that it would be impossible to get off 
respectably under a shilling, when he added, " I 
was wishing to ask a small favour of you, sir ! my 
cottage is only a step off. If you and the lady will 
come in to take a taste of whiskey and a biscuit, 
that would be a great honour to the like of me. No 
offence, sir, but it is our way in the Highlands !" 

We thanked him cordially, though I could not 
resist a gentle hint against what the Highlanders 
call " a spark of whiskey," adding a short panegy- 



180 CASTLE GRANT. 

lie OH teetotalism, but he said in reply, " It would 
be a disgrace to any Macintosh, ma'am, who could 
not take a glass or two without being the worse." 
I suppose he was like the witness in court, who 
said he had never seen his friend the worse of drink, 
but often the better of it. You have heard of the 
M. P. who, some years ago, inadvertently astonished 
the House of Conmions, by beginning his speech 
against the flogging of soldiers for intoxication, by 

saying, " Mr. Speaker ! you get drunk, I 

get drunk, we all get drunk !" 

The cottage pointed out by our old soldier was 
very neat, but by no means so near as he hospitably 
wished us to think, therefore, with a civil apology, 
on account of being limited in our allowance of time, 
we politely suggested that he might accompany us 
along the approach to show the way, which he 
very obligingly did, and moreover pointed out some 
of the battle-fields and hills, which otherwise we 
should not have discovered. That of Cromdale in- 
terested us especially, where the cause of James II. 
received its final blow in Scotland, and the old sol- 
dier informed us, that there the bones had lately 
been dug up of " a person of respectability." How 
the deceased's respectability had been ascertained 
we did not hear. 

A was so much pleased by the communi- 
cativeness and simplicity of our military volunteer, 



CASTLE GRANT. 181 

that when taking leave he offered him a handsome 
donation, but the old soldier drew back, and actually 
swore a solemn oath on the spot, that nothing could 
induce him to accept it, not being apparently of so 
persuadable a nature on this score as the pew-opener 
at your church, who is forbid to accept any douceur 
from strangers, but always whispers when declining 
it, that they may place what they please under the 
seat, where she will find it next morning. 

What prodigious entertainment travellers lose, 
who do not converse frankly and kindly with the 
country people ! Our old cicerone seemed as fond 
of Castle Grant as if it had been his own, and said 
with a look of delighted anticipation, " You'll see 
some things to-day, ma'am, that you little expect ! 
The armory is a grand place ! you'll be surprised ! !" 

In the approach, we were stopped by a poor 
maniac, who fancies herself owner of this property, 
and walked with great dignity, holding up her drag- 
gled petticoats, and calling herself" Lady Watson !" 
After a short parley, she condescended to let us 
proceed ; and I could not but think how fortunate 
it is, when madness is not of a melancholy kind, for 
this pitiable being enjoyed a sort of happiness nearly 
allied to that of persons who habitually build castles 
in the air, but while we are deeply responsible for 
any such voluntary waste of intellect, Lady Watson 
may continue blamelessly to enjoy her imaginary 
16 



182 CASTLE GRANT. 

consequence, and to confer her imaginary favours, 
unless it be true, as a French author once main- 
tained, that men are answerable even for any sin 
they may fancy themselves committing in a dream. 

An American would say, that we could not 
easily " ditto" Castle Grant ! I have seldom seen a 
more striking coup d'oeil than this very stern-looking 
old place, though the ancient towers have been 
cruelly injured by a modern addition, like a cotton 
manufactory, the blame of which hes upon Adams. 
The venerable antique tower, rising 118 steps from 
the ground, looks down with solemn contempt on 
this vulgar excrescence, and seems heartily ashamed 
of the connection. 

We laboriously ascended, to enjoy from our 
usual station on the roof, a grand wild view of the 
Grant country, Cairngorum studded with snow, the 
frowning heights of Ben Nevis, challenging the very 
clouds, and endless plantations of sombre fir-trees, 
so close and thick, they seemed as if we might walk 
on their tops. I have a hearty respect for those 
primitive old forests which planted and raised them- 
selves from nothing ! 

The furniture here, which I expected to find 
almost coeval with the forests, is, on the contrary, 
quite gay and modern ; chairs which run so lightly 
along the floor, they might be entered for the St. 
Leger, and sofas in the very newest extreme of 



CASTLE GRANT. 183 

luxury and taste. The ancestors here are worth 
travelling any distance to visit. In this very long 
line, it is amusing to trace a family likeness among 
so many successive generations, all remarkably 
handsome, vsrhile we perceived a gradual moderni- 
zing of dress and attitude. None were so beautiful, 
however, as the young heiress of Rossdhu, Miss 
Colquhoun, painted by Ramsay, in a rich white 
satin dress, and carrying a wreath of flowers. She 
was forcibly carried off by a second son of this fa- 
mily, who proved, when on trial for the offence, that 
the lady sat in front on the horse, and must there- 
fore have run off with him ! This plea being con- 
sidered satisfactory, the gentleman was acquitted, 
and became afterwards laird of Grant, on which his 
second son succeeded to the beautiful and extensive 
domain of Rossdhu on Loch Lomond. We saw 
here a miniature portrait including the three indi- 
^^duals who descended from that marriage. Sir Lu- 
dovic Grant, Sir James Colquhoun, and Colonel 
Colquhoun, all dressed exceedingly fine, and looking 
very much bored, as if they were listening to some 
very prosing talker. 

Here we beheld about the twentieth copy I have 
observed in Morayshire of the same painting. At 
Brodie, Gordon Castle, Dunphail, Altyre, Castle 
Grant, and probably every other house I did not 
visit, there is a picture of the Sybil, which, as you 



184 CASTLE GRANT. 

were once in this county, you must of course recol- 
lect, with a pen in her hand, a turban on her head, 
and her eyes turned up to the ceiling, exactly as we 
all do, when much at a loss for an idea. 

The Seafield family attached themselves appa- 
rently, in a most amiable degree, to every person in 
the remotest manner connected with them, and here 
we saw five or six portraits, in full clerical costume, 
of the various clergymen they were accustomed to 
hear, the family piper full-length, and even the old 
hen-wife in a kit-kat ! Nothing, however, in the 
way of painting, ever amused me so much, as the 
good humoured whim of an old Laird of Grant, who 
brought to the castle an artist named Waitt, and 
caused about thirty portraits to be done, exhibiting 
the formidable likeness of each gentleman belonging 
to his clan. It was a fine, chieftain-like idea, and 
has been most comically executed ! You never saw 
so fierce looking a collection ! The Kings of Scot- 
land at Holyrood are nothing to it ! ! 

If any family of Grant wishes for an ancestor, 
he has only to come here and make a choice ! 
A took down a memorandum of all their ex- 
traordinary designations, but I only remember Grant 
of Ballindalloch, and Grant of Tullochjjorum, well 
known for the reel which goes by his name, and 
even now he looks quite ready to start from his 
frame, and set off to the piper opposite. In the 



GRANTOWN. 185 

centre of all, hangs the patriarch of the clan, exhi- 
biting a most venerable aspect, and wearing a pro- 
fusion of gray hair, like white cotton. Unluckily 
there are no Mrs. Grants ! I should have liked 
beyond measure to see the ladies who matched 
such gentlemen ! the power of painting could no 
farther go ! 

An old Laird of Grant formerly despatched one 
of his clan to the Earl of Findlater with a present 
of chickens and venison, but the Highlander not 
being a good linguist, delivered his message in a 
most deferential manner as follows : — " The Laird 
o' Grant's compliments to the Laird o' Fin-laater, 
and sends him sickness and vengeance. If he 
wants more he can have them !" The two 
neighbouring families of Findlater, or Fin-de-la- 
terre, and Grant, are now merged into one, under 
the more modern title of the Earl of Seafield. 

Grantown is the most perfectly Highland village 
I have seen. Here the men all sport their clan tar- 
tans and kilts, while the young women wear a 
graceful plaid, and the snood in their hair, looking 
all neat, clean, and cheerful, " contented wi' little, 
and cantie wi' mair." Our old soldier spoke in 
raptures of the chief's family, saying, " they never 
wish to change tenants, and we never wish to change 
landlords." Undoubtedly it might surprise a stran- 
ger, seeing no great manufactories in the village, 
16* 



186 BALVENY CASTLE. 

to observe, nevertheless, an appearance of almost 
unaccountable prosperity. The granite houses, so 
nearly similar in age and size, they seem all to have 
been built at once, the streets spacious, and every 
thing denoting comfort and competence ; but when 
"we heard how liberally and judiciously the veiy 
poorest tenants on this estate are attended to and 
watched over, my perplexity on this subject was 
ended, and I could wonder no longer, that the good 
old times are still extant here, of boundless attach- 
ment to the " reigning family." 

We ought certainly now to have danced down 
the glen of Strathspey, for we proceeded through 
that charming valley, passing many fine seats in the 
Grant country, among which Ballindalloch, belong- 
ing to Sir George Macpherson Grant, is one of the 
most ancient and beautiful, finely situated, richly 
wooded, and exhibiting that air of indesci'ibable 
cheerfulness and good order, which testifies the care 
of a resident proprietor. 

Balveny Castle is a considerable ruin which be- 
longed to a celebrated heiress, " The fair maid of 
Galloway," who succeeded the Earls of Douglas, 
and Dukes of Touraine, by the cruel slaughter of 
her two young brothers, whom the Chancellor 
Crichton, without pity for their youth, the eldest 
being only eighteen, or any scruple on account of 
having promised them protection, treacherously in- 



GLENLIVET. 187 

veigled into Edinburgh Castle, and beheaded. The 
young lady first bestowed herself and castle on the 
Earl of Douglas, her cousin, whom King James the 
Second stabbed in Stirling Castle, when he arrived 
there by invitation, bringing with him a safe con- 
duct under the great seal. The disconsolate widow 
next married, by special dispensation, the brother 
and successor of her husband, who was forfeited 
soon after, and fled to England ; but not wishing 
to share his fortunes — or misfortunes — ^she got her 
second marriage annulled, and his Majesty gave her 
in marriage to his own half-brother, the Earl of 
Atholl, who probably rebuilt the Castle of Belveny, 
as the motto which he adopted is carved in immense 
letters over the massy iron gate. When King James 
the Second sent Lord Atholl against Macdonald, 
Earl of Ross, his parting benediction was given in 
these few words, which have ever since continued 
to be the family motto, " Forth fortune, and fill the 
fetters !" 

The estate of Balveny escaped after all, however, 
from the descendants of this frequently married 
heiress, and went, by some odd mischance, to her 
husband's son by a subsequent marriage, and after 
remaining with the Earls of Atholl during five gene- 
rations, and meeting with various other vicissitudes, 
now belongs to the Earl of Fife. 

A few miles above Ballindalloch is the vale of 



188 GLENLIVET. 

Glenlivet, famous in modern times for its whiskey, 
and in ancient times for its battle, generally known 
as the battle of Balrinnes, where the young Earl of 
Argyll, though only in his eighteenth year, acted as 
generalissimo for the king, commanding an army of 
12,000 men, which was defeated by Lord Huntly at 
the head of 300 horse. In those days, every com- 
mander carried a witch, or a professor of second- 
sight with him, as regularly as his ADC, and Argyll 
had been promised that, on the day after this battle, 
his harp should be played in Buchan, and the bag- 
pipe at Huntly's chief seat in Strathbogie, which 
prediction was certainly fulfilled to the ear, though 
not exactly as Argyll expected, for the notes were 
not those of triumph, and he was not there to enjoy 
the sound, having retreated to a distant refuge. 

A little farther up is the late Duke of Gordon's 
delightful shooting lodge of Glenfiddich, the well 
known head-quarters for deer-stalking. The late 
floods have rendered it almost unapproachable for 
the last three miles, as the road has been washed 
away, and the river must be forded eleven or twelve 
times to reach the spot, but it is thought that the 
present noble proprietor prefers encountering these 
difficulties himself, rather than throw this preserve 
more open to idle tourists, like ourselves, who 
" frighten the deer," as it was objected to steam- 
boats on the Thames that they " frightened the fish." 



ELCHIES. 189 

Between Elgin and its flourishing port Burgh- 
head, stands the large baronial house of Gordonston, 
well wooded, but otherwise in a featureless flat. It 
is a plain, square, town-like pile, now beginning to 
show symptoms of disconsolate neglect, since the 
Gordon baronets failed, and it fell to the Gumming 
family, who possess the far more captivating resi- 
dence of Altyre, in the same county. Within this 
house is a subterranean cell, in which a peeress was 
formerly imprisoned by Sir Robert Gordon, that she 
might be induced to surrender her patrimonial rights, 
but the lady held out with great spirit, and was at 
last liberated triumphantly. This family of Gordon 
were all so clever, that they gained the reputation 
of being, in several instances, wizards, and the prac- 
tice of witchcraft was kept up in Morayshire longer 
than in any other part of Scotland. Sir Robert 
Gordon, being the premier Baronet of Scotland, was 
very jealous on the score of precedency, and having 
met once at dinner a neighbour recently promoted to 
an Irish peerage, who was smilingly taking his 
place first in the procession down stairs, the tall, 
gaunt Sir Robert stalked hastily after his Lordship, 
grasped his shoulder, and twirling him round, an- 
grily exclaimed, " Na ! na ! my Lord ! ye mami 
gang to Ireland for that !" 

Near Elgin we passed the estate of Elchies, 
from which one of our Scotch judges formerly took 



190 ELGIN. 

his title. Nothing perplexes English strangers more 
in Scotland, than our bishops without mitres, and 
lords without coronets. I remember seeing a great 
genealogist, who met one of our fifteen judges at 
dinner, suffering agonies of perplexity on hearing a 
frequently repeated title, the date and patent of 
which he could not call to mind, till at last he turned 
anxiously to Lord , who had observed his em- 
barrassment, and said, in allusion to the number of 
peers elected to Parliament, " Might I ask, my Lord, 
if you are one of the sixteen ?" " No," replied his 
Lordship with grave dignity, " I am one of the fif- 
teen !" The strangest choice of a designation I 
ever knew, was made by one of our judges, who 
called himself " Lord Unthank !" 

Elgin is a beautifully varied little city of eccen- 
tric old houses, and charming new streets, built of a 
stone which surpasses all praise, being exactly of 
the hue that Cheltenham wishes to appear, a pale, 
delicate, nankeen colour, and the longer it is exposed 
the harder it becomes. This is more particularly to 
be admired in the grand old ruinous cathedral, com- 
monly known as " the Lantern of the North," which 
looks so perfectly untarnished by time, that it seems 
more like a building about to be finished, than an 
aged veteran, whose work is done. The Bishop's 
house, too, a few yards off, has considerable remains 
of grandeur. I was recently amused to hear, that 



ELGIN. 191 

the late Lord Dalhousie, not being able at once to 
understand the difference between St. Peter's and 
the Vatican, a friend made it plain by saying, " Why, 
ray Lord, only recollect that St. Peter's is the kirk, 
and the Vatican the manse." 

At Elgin cathedral, the celebrated carvings have 
edges as sharp and distinct as the day they were 
chiselled, and nothing in sculpture can be more 
beautiful than the arched door of entrance, with eight 
fine pillars, surmounted by wreaths of roses in full 
relief. The octagon chapter-house is also orna- 
mented on the roof with a perfect garden of flowers 
turned into stone. 

The old guide here, a well known character, is 
commonly called "The Bishop of Moray." His 
enthusiasm respecting this noble specimen of sacred 
architecture renders him a desirable cicerone through 
the old walls, which are in fully better repair than 
himself, as he can scarcely totter along. The old 
man leaning on his oaken staff, feels an honest pride 
in boasting of the diligence with which he has 
cleaned and arranged the ruins, since he was ap- 
pointed guardian, and he signalized his reign by 
moving away 2866 carts of rubbish, which had ac- 
cumulated in the lapse of ages, conceahng some of 
the steps, and several prostrate fragments of beauti- 
ful workmanship. Here " men of marble piecemeal 
melt away," and our guide has composed a laugh- 



192 ELGIN CATHEDRAL. 

able medley of the broken and mutilated statues, 
which he arranged in groups according to his own 
fancy, putting noses on wherever they were want- 
ing, and placing heads upon bodies for which they 
were never intended. The party which he particularly 
piqued himself upon, consisted of a face with an ex- 
pression of suffering, which he called Dives, a good- 
humoured complacent-looking head near, represent- 
ed Lazarus, and he had found a colossal dog's head, 
which was supposed to be licking the sores. A 
scolding physiognomy, which he discovered beneath 
a mountain of rubbish, he has stuck up on a tower 
opposite to another representing the celebrated Wolf 
of Badenoch, who once did penance here, standing 
barefoot at the great gate, and who not only robbed 
and massacred this noble edifice, but finally set it on 
fire. John Knox generally gets the blame wherever 
we see a roofless church, but you must acquit him 
on this occasion, as he can prove an alihi, not having 
yet been born. The old guide informed me that 
there were on this establishment formerly, two-and- 
twenty canons, which he thought it necessary to 
explain were not military but ecclesiastical. 

Besides many fine old tombs of bishops and war- 
riors now crumbling to dust, like those they were 
intended to commemorate, we were shown the coffin 
of King Duncan, but could hear no account of where 
his bones had been placed. I am told that, when 



ELGIN CATHEDRAL. 193 

the burying vault at Lord K 's was opened 

some years ago, one of the coffins, which had been 
evidently burst open, was empty, and a skeleton lay 
at some distance, leading to the fearful conjecture, 
that the unfortunate person had been interred alive. 
At the English burial vaults in Munich, each de- 
ceased person has a bell placed beside his body, in 
case he should come alive again ! a most desirable 
precaution in a sultry climate, where the funeral 
follows so immediately after death. Our cicerone 
showed us where the last two very popular and 
talented Dukes of Gordon are interred, and his voice 
faultered with emotion when he spoke, yet in any 
less solemnizing situation, you could scarcely have 
resisted a smile, at the free and easy tone with which 
he mentioned them as " my people," generally com- 
mencing his stories, of which he related many, by 
saying, " The Duke and I were talking here one 

day" ^but he did not get so far as to say, like 

your friend, " I and the Duke !" How astonished 
noblemen would sometimes feel, if they could sud- 
denly behold a collection of all the intimate friends 
who speak of them, in remote districts, with a de- 
gree of familiarity highly impressive, to country 
cousins and provincial neighbours ; for many aspi- 
ring youths, who have dined once in company with 
a man of rank, or even passed him on the street, 
think it incumbent on them, ever afterwards, to 
17 



194 ELGIN. 

forget his title ; and if it makes them happy, why 
not ? One remarkable phenomenon in the natural 
history of fashionable life, which I really do pique 
myself upon having discovered, is, that any gentle- 
man who invariably gives an absent peer his title in 
mixed society, may, in all probability, have the pri- 
vilege of dispensing with it if they actually meet ; 
but those who un-Lord a nobleman supposed to be 
at a safe distance, are obliged, when by ill-luck he 
unexpectedly appears — ^if on speaking terms at all, 
which is improbable — to make such an expenditure 
of Lordships in his presence, as might pay off, with 
interest, all previous deficiencies. A young lady 
from the country, some time ago, when taking a 
romantic leave of a school companion, the daughter 
of an Earl, exclairned in a paroxysm of affection, 
" Do let us correspond, and may I call you Fanny ?" 
To which the particular friend replied, " Call me 
what you please, but spare me the letter-writing !" 

I must conclude my long epistle with an amu- 
sing story in the Scotch dialect, which, though 
known in this neighbourhood, being related of a 
celebrated character who resided not far off, may 
probably be new to you ; and even at the worst, it 
is one of the very few I could venture to tell twice, 
therefore, try if you can understand it without a 
glossary. 

The Laird of Bonymoon was extremely hospi- 



ELGIN. 195 

table, but so exceedingly lazy and indolent, that his 
sisters could scarcely ever entice him from the fire- 
side; but one morning they entreated him with 
great anxiety to take a ride for the good of his health. 

" Hoot !" said he angrily, " what should gar me 
gang bumping on a horse, when I can sit quietly 
here wi' my glass o' toddy !" 

" But, brother," answered they, " if anything 
should ail you, what would become of us ? Pray go 
for our sakes." 

" Weel ! ony thing for a quiet life ! I'll e'en 
tak' this weary ride. I'm sure, I wish it was o'er ; 
but mind ! 'gin I meet ony body coming this way, 
I'll bring him back to his dinner ; if no', may be I'll 
dine with some neighbour. John, saddle the horses." 

Accordingly off went the laird on a jog-trot 
awkward-looking horse, boxing the compass with 
his head to see if any human being were coming his 
way, as a pretext for turning ; but meeting nobody, 
he arrived at last near the house of an intimate friend. 

" Ah, Bonymoon, is this you 1 I'm very glad 
to see you ! . What wind brought you here ?" 

" Never mind that ! I'm come to dine wi' you ! 
What ha' ye got ?" 

"A bubbly jock and a grilse."* 

"John, tak' the horses! Aye, neighbour, ye 
live weel ! Is there ony body wi' ye ?" 

♦ Turkey and salmon. 



196 ELGIN. 

" Only an English gentleman." 

In they went, and the host taking his stranger 
guest aside, whispered, " I think it necessary to in- 
form you, that I mean to play the laird a trick. 
He is said to have neither taste nor smell, and I 
wish to try him with cherry brandy instead of port." 

After dinner, wine being put on table, the laird 
exclaimed, " But what's a' this ! you've sent me a 
different bottle from your own !" 

" This is claret, and you like port." 

" Aye ! aye ! give me nane o' ye' re washes. Gie 
me something that'll take a grip o' the stamach." 

He then filled a bumper to the King. " Honest 
man ! I like him weel aneuch ! Oh ! neighboui-, hae 
ye muckle o' this wine! it's the best port I ever 
tasted ! oh! man, it's fine !" 

Bumper after bumper was tossed down with in- 
creasing relish, till at last the bottle was emptied. 

" My guid friend," said the laird, " though you hae 
few o' thae bottles, will ye treat me to anither 1" 

" Certainly, Bonymoon ! Sandy ! another bottle ! 
be sure it is the same." 

The laird became more and more captivated 
with this new vintage of port, but after finishing 
the second supply, he made an attempt to rise, say- 
ing, " Weel, neighbour ! we've spent a very pleasant 
evening thegether, and had a great deal o' sensible 
conversation." 



ELGIN. 197 

"You're not going already?" 

" Aye ! aye ! the lasses at hame'll be wearying." 
Saying this he made a second effort to get up, but 
stumbled and fell back, angrily exclaiming, " Hoot ! 
canna' ye mak' the carpet straight ! thae runkles 
might throw down ony body." 

With the help of his obliging neighbour, the 
laird was mounted on horseback, when the English- 
man anxiously remonstrated, saying, " Surely you 
will not send the gentleman home in such a state ! 
he will meet with some accident !" 

" No ! no ! he is accustomed to it ! only let us 
run up the approach, and hear him pledge the gude- 
w^ife at my lodge in a dram." 

The two listeners arrived in time to hear the 
laird making many kind inquiries for a' the bairns, 
and the dialogue concluded by the gate-keeper 
saying, " It's an unco' raw night ! your honour wad 
na' be the w^ar o' a drap whiskey !" 

" Deed no, gudewife ! The laird's port sits 
unco' cauld on my stamach. Fill it up !" 

Bonymoon having thus primed himself, rode on 
with some spirit, but soon after' in crossing a small 
stream, the laird vainly tried to balance himself, 
but his head proved heaviest, and he slid down into 
the cuirent. 

" John !" said he, " What's that I hear splashing 
in the water 7" 

17* 



198 ELGIN. 

" I'm thinking it's your honour," answered John, 
getting off his horse to assist his master, who was 
with great ditficulty remounted, but soon after, in 
passing over a wide moor, a sudden gust of wind 
carried away the laird's hat and wig, which he or- 
dered John to find immediately. 

" It's impossible, your honour ! I might as weel 
look for a needle in a haystack !" 

" Never mind that, John ! I winna stir without 
my wig !'* 

John got down, grumbling loudly, and groping 
about, until, by good luck, he found them both, 
when the laird attempted to put his wig on, but 
having placed the part that should have been be- 
hind, in front, the cue hung over his nose. 

" Stop, John ! this is no' my wig." 

" Your honour maun just be do'ng then, for 
there's nae w^ail o' wigs here !" replied John, coolly 
mounting his horse, and in this plight the laird ar- 
rived at home, where he staggered straight into the 
drawing-room, when his sisters, not at first recog- 
nising him, screamed aloud with alarm. 

" Hoot !" said he, " what are ye bawling at ?" 

" Brother ! is that you !" cried they eagerly. 
" What in the world has happened to you ! Make 
haste in to the fire, and change yourself. Quick ! 
I'm sure it will be long enough before we again 
recommend a ride for your health," 



SPEY BRIDGE. 



My dear Cousin, — To do you justice, I scarcely 
know any one who stands the expense of postage 
in a more magnanimous spirit than yourself, and ac- 
cordingly I shall now put you to the test. I often 
think no vice carries its own punishment along with 
it so obviously as the love of money— it interferes 
with every thing — especially on a journey, for there 
can be few greater annoyances than to be surrounded 
by grumbling post-boys and discontented landladies ; 
besides which, it impedes all sociability with our 
friends, all liberality to the poor, poisoning every 
meal we sit down to, embittering sickness itself on 
account of the expense, and even diminishing the 
pleasures of a friendly correspondence like ours ; in 
short, it meets you at every corner. However, 
where necessary, I admire and respect judicious 
economy, but there can be no consolation for those 
who practise it in excess without absolute occasion. 
Those who have a liberal spirit and a limited income 
know, that what they save in one thing, will be 
added to their expenditure in something else of more 
absolute importance, but I cannot sufficiently won- 
der at those who make money the end of their 



200 SPEY BRIDGE. 

being, merely for hoarding sake — merely that a 
cipher may at last be added to their book in the 
bank ! It seems to me the most unaccountable of 
all infatuations ! I have come to the conclusion, 
after long and careful observation, that the very 
highest attainment of human good sense is, to 
proportion your expenses, both charitable and do- 
mestic, precisely to your income ; for when we see 
that rich people become almost invariably avaricious, 
and that when the poor have little, they think it 
not worth hoarding, and become extravagant, I 
really think a testimonial should be voted to any 
man who can be proved to have kept the balance 
exactly for a certain number of years, duly consid- 
ering the claims of his children, his dependents, his 
religion, and even his own comfort. It is a curious 
phenomenon how many rich people wish to live as 
if they were poor, and how many poor people con- 
trive to live as if they were rich ! 

We this day crossed Spey Bridge without acci- 
dent or mishap, which is more than the late Duke 
of Gordon did, who was standing on it during the 
great flood, eleven years ago, when hearing a sudden 
crack, he had barely time to flee, before, with the 
rapidity of lightning and a noise like thunder, a 
mass of water, piled "with full-grown trees and with 
floating rubbish, swept forward in irresistible power, 
and buried the noble bridge in a dark and boihng 



GORDON CASTLE. 201 

torrent. His Grace, on that occasion, found his re- 
treat cut off towards Gordon Castle, having hurriedly 
escaped to the wrong side of the river, where he 
was charitably fed and clothed during several days 
at Orton, the hospitable residence of Mr. Wharton 
Duff. A new arch of wood has been since built, a 
single span, 200 feet wdde, which really makes a 
tolerably long arm across the water. 

We still continue at full speed, hopping from 
castle to castle, and from mountain to mountain, at 
a rate that would carry us very speedily round the 
world. It certainly is a great privilege to take 
possession of all these magnificent places for an 
hour or two, enjoying the landscape, pictures, and 
furniture as if they were our own, and to-day w^e 
made a most agreeable and fatiguing house-tour in 
Gordon Castle, till my eyes became perfectly glassy 
with exhaustion. I w^onder that people ever survive 
seeing the Louvre I A week at Florence would 
kill me outright. 

Though the grounds of Inverary, Blair Athol, 
and Hopetoun House, are perhaps more exquisitely 
lovely than those of Gordon Castle, yet, this seems 
to be, on the whole, the finest ducal residence in 
Scotland. I am told that the largest mansion in 
England, Wentworth House, covers the eighth of 
a mile, but this is also of vast extent, being five 
hundred and sixty-eight feet long, and built of the 



202 GORDON CASTLE. 

splendid Elgin free-stone : " A world of a house !" 
It is cui'ious that every thing more magnificent or 
more beautiful than common, is apt to make us 
melancholy ! Music or poetry, or even an unusually 
generous action, bring tears starting to the eyes, 
and I have even known instances where the first 
surprise of beholding a very majestic edifice has 
produced this effect, and I could perfectly fancy it 
arising in such a scene as this. Probably the tears 
we shed for the moral sublimity of a fine action, 
may partly be caused by a transient sense of what 
our nature was originally before the fall. 

The park at Gordon Castle is bounded only by 
the horizon ; the trees are gigantic, every thing, in 
short, appears on the grandest scale, and the great 
antiquity of this ancient family adds interest and 
dignity to all we admire. Every page in the history 
of Scotland seems mingled with the names of Huntly 
and Gordon, always brave, generous, and loyal, — 
the first to take arms for their king and country, 
remaining alw^ays true to the family motto, " By 
courage not by craft." They flourished and reigned 
here since Robert Bruce transplanted them from 
Berwickshire, during two-and-twenty generations ; 
but this noble estate has recently been divorced from 
the title, and alienated from a name so long supreme 
among those glens and hills of Strathspey. Can it 
be possible that the long line of Huntly and Gordon 



GORDON CASTLE. 203 

has actually vanished from the halls of their fathers ! 
This was indeed a nice little succession for those 
who have inherited it ! In ancient days the land 
frequently cariied the title along with it, and, indeed, 
the time was once when a Marquis of Huntly might 
have unfurled his standard, rallied his clan around 
him, and bid defiance to an English successor, but 
perhaps in these days one could scarcely recommend 
such an experiment. It was an old rule in Scottish 
law, to claim all you can, and you may be certain 
to get more than you have a right to. 

One fine old tower of the ancient castle, far sur- 
mounting the rest, has remained steadfast, like a 
monument of past generations, through all the vicis- 
situdes of time, and still continues, greatly excelling 
the adjoining edifice of more recent date. "When 
I merely say a building is old, let that be considered 
equivalent to a panegyric, being, as you know, so 
fond of antiquities that I would any day prefer a 
Queen Anne's farthing to a good modern guinea. I 
only wished this venerable tower had been roofless, 
because we had so toilsome an ascent to the top, 

where A should have sung the popular song, 

" Sic a rinin' up stairs !" We were amply repaid, 
however, at last by a view which it would take me 
a folio volume to describe ; but never rest in peace 
till you have stood in an ecstasy of delight where 



204 GORDON CASTLE. 

we did to-day, and astonished the very stars with 
your exclamations of rapture. 

The entrance hall is decorated with every des- 
cription of elegant lumber, among which we admired 
several beautiful busts and statues copied from the 
antique, particularly the Apollo Belvidere and the 
Venus de Medici, the grace and expression of which 
can scarcely be excelled, I should imagine, by their 
great originals at Florence, which have so long con- 
tinued to " enchant the world." 

Cosmo, Duke of Gordon, received his not very 
Highland name in compliment to Cosmo, Duke of 
Tuscany, whose exceedingly ugly bust stands in the 
entrance-hall, and from his foreign godfather the 
Duke seems to have derived a truly Italian taste for 
sculpture, as the entrance-hall would remind you of 
a marble-cutter's show-room. The stair-carpet here 
is of Gordon tartan, dark green and purple, which 
looks rather sombre, but is considered one of our 
handsomest Highland plaids. I always feel sorry 
for the family pictures in an empty house, they .look 
so lonely, cold, and forlorn, but here each individual 
ancestor seems to have been handsome and distin- 
guished-looking. In the dining-room hangs a com- 
plete wreath round the wall, representing Earls, 
Marquisses, and Marchionesses of Huntly, all look- 
ing their very best, as they appeared in the olden 



GORDON CASTLE. 205 

time ; and the worthy housekeeper seemed to think 
every grim-looking personage on the walls must 
have possessed the same title, as she created, with- 
out scruple or hesitation, a long succession of Mar- 
quisses on the spot. 

The first Earl, who had three wives, looks as if 
he had w^ept his eyes out for them all, and the first 
Marquis is a grand aristocratic-looking personage. 
On his first attending court, being censured for not 
bowing when introduced, he proudly replied, " I am 
accustomed to live in a country where every body 
bows to me !" 

George, second Marquis of Huntly, a melan- 
choly-looking man, was beheaded for his attach- 
ment to Charles the First. His two eldest sons 
were considered the most amiable and distinguished 
youths of their time, but the first was killed under 
Montrose, and his brother died of grief for the ex- 
ecution of Charles the First. How enthusiastic was 
the attachment which that monarch created ! 

Ladies were sometimes very strange beings long 
ago ! only very long ago, not now, — and we looked 
with some awe yet, at the ancient Countess of 
Huntly, who was a most terrifying character in her 
time. About the year 1590, during her husband's 
absence, she received the chief of Mackintosh on an 
embassy of peace, and angrily declared, that there 
should be no reconciliation till his neck was on the 
18 



206 GORDON CASTLES 

block. The unwary visiter jocularly laid his head 
on a table in pretended submission, seeing which 
one of the attendants of the Countess instantly 
grasped a carving-knife, and severed it from his 
shoulders. This unhappy victim was nephew to the 
Earl of Moray. His followers she afterwards im- 
prisoned, and fed them like swine out of a trough ; 
but for these cruelties, and many more, her title was 
forfeilieil, tliough subsequently restored. 

The son of this ferocious latly hieing condemned 
to death, she begged his Hfe in vain, and found no 
more mercy than she had shown. Being consid- 
ered the handsomest man of the age, Queen Mary 
became accused of partiality to hiin, and was forced 
against her will to witness his execution. Nothing 
in thie \vay of fortune-telling could be more curious 
than that which occurred to this Countess's husband, 
L6rd Huntly, who had been warned that he should 
certainly die at Corraighie. The name sounded to 
him like Creigh, a place near Aberdeen, which he 
always afterwards carefully avoided, but when dan- 
gerously wounded at the battle of Corraighie, he 
anxiously inquired the name of the place, on hear- 
ing which, he repeated it thrice before he died, 
" Corraighie ! Corraighie ! Corraighie ! then God 
be merciful to me !" 

Two beautiful representations are extant here of 
the celebrated Duchess of Gordon, whose witty and 



GORDON CASTLE. 207 

eccentric sayings are the favourite theme of every 
jest-book. Sir Joshua Reynolds had the honour of 
having executed the very lovely one we first ob- 
served, with the finest eyes that ever lighted up a 
face, but the portrait was not at all characteristic, 
being drawn with that pensive, languid, not-partic- 
ularly-clever expression observable in most of the 
feijial§ portraits by that artist. The other, by An- 
gf li^a K^ufFinan, had so noble an aspect, that I 
should feel proud only to be the nail that it was 
hung upon. Her Grace's countenance appeared 
radiant with all that spirit and vivacity for which 
she was long distinguished, while you could per- 
fectly imagine her uttering some startling and pi- 
quant bon mot, such as those with which she fre- 
quently enlivened the dullest society. There are 
persons who seem formed for the situations they 
occupy, and when I remember Jane Duchess of 
Gordon's queen-rlike majesty of appearance and 
commanding manner, it seems as if by nature she 
could never have been otherwise than the leading 
person in every circle, even without the adventitious 
aid of her exalted rank. 

Her Grace, when dying, desired to be buried at 
her own favourite and romantic residence, Kinrara, 
on the Spey. She ordered that for her epitaph the 
names and titles of all her daughters should be en- 
graved on the tombstone, where I am told they may 



208 GORDON CASTLE. 

now be read at full length. Among the number 
are included three Duchesses and a Marchioness. 
Certainly no one ever played more successfully at 
the game of" catch honours." 

The Duke, her husband, lived to the age of 
eighty-four, and is represented in every stage of ex- 
istence, from childhood to the most advanced period 
of life. It would have been amusing to arrange 
the whole series close together ! He is exhibited 
first on the staircase, when two years old, as Cupid, 
equipped with wings and a quiver; but to these 
customary decorations a light tartan scarf is super- 
added, while the mischievous little sprite looks 
highly entertained at his extraordinary transforma- 
tion into a Highlander. 

Five other portraits of his Grace hang else- 
where ; the first painted at Rome, where he has 
evidently returned from a capital day's sport, being 
surrounded by tired looking dogs and dead game. 
In another frame, he sports a fancy dress ; and this 
likeness was said to have been painted by Raeburn 
at the time of his marriage. His Grace next looks 
down from the wall in his Lord Lieutenant's uniform, 
and last, in extreme old age, with his star and rib- 
bon, which I remember his invariably wearing in 
the evenings, being of the now exploded opinion, 
that such honourable decorations should occasionally 
be seen, and need not be reserved only for a corona- 



GORDON CASTLE. 209 

tlon. The Duke w^as an excellent performer on 
the violin, and delighted so peculiarly in Scotch 
music, that if every one felt as keen a national par- 
tiality, the Italian Opera-House would soon be 
deserted. 

There are three pictures at Gordon Castle of 
the celebrated Lord Peterborough, looking very 
spirited and consequential, as if " a thousand hearts 
were great within his breast ;" and certainly few 
heroes have merited a larger leaf of laurel. As a 
lady once impatiently remarked of her husbatid, 
"cats have nine lives, but he seemed to have ten." 
In one of Lord Peterborough's portraits, he wears 
a wig waving in billows over his shoulders, which 
five ordinary heads of hair could scarcely iaave sup- 
plied. He would have made an excellent frontis- 
piece for Rowland's macassar oil ; but in these days 
a wig must have been almost as expensive as an 
estate, when a country girl received £60 for her 
ringlets, and an old woman's gray hair was sold 
for .£50 ! 

Lord Peterborough said, after visiting Fenelon, 
" If I had stayed with him any longer, I should have 
become a Christian in spite of myself!" How un- 
fortunate for him now, that he did not ! His cour- 
age in the field was only excelled by the firmness 
with which he sustained the long agonies of a pain- 
ful death, but his was the stern endurance of a 
18* 



210 GORDON CASTLE. 

Stoic, not the enlightened resignation of a Christian. 
Even when folding his mantle around him to fall 
with dignity, he was coldly sarcastic in talking of 
Christianity, and merely said, that " he made a 
point of being civil to all religions," a species of 
compromise only too common now ! It is curious 
that Lord Peterborough's daughter, the Duchess of 
Gordon, introduced the Protestant faith into this 
family, previously bigoted Roman Catholics, but 
being left guardian of her son, while a minor, she 
brought him up in her own creed, which was, for- 
tunately, less accommodating than that of her father. 
When we see a cold, hard, stern, disposition like 
his, united to such great natural endowments, it re- 
minds me of a frost-bound garden, where no flowers 
nor fruit can flourish ; and till the good seed be 
sown, till the dew fall, and the sun shine from 
heaven upon the barren waste, how cheerless and 
desolate a sight it must ever remain ! 

We admired much, a very handsome portrait, in 
full Highland garb, of the late very popular Duke, — 
the last heir of his long hne ! The world has been 
so accustomed for centuries to have Dukes of Gor- 
don successively appearing, that it seems quite 
strange now without one ! In the same room hangs 
a picture, such as you seldom see, representing the 
Duke of Perth, so dignified, so animated, and so very 
intellectual looking, that the whole expression was 



GOREON CASTLE. 211 

in character with the history of one, who was " as 
brave as he was bonny." The dress consists of a 
graceful plaid thrown over his Highland uniform. 
What a misfortune to gentlemen of taste, being- 
born in the present century, when their whole 
genius must limit itself to a blue coat and black 
neckcloth ! The worst portrait in this collection is 
one of George IV., presented by his Majesty to the 
late Duke, but it is a most unworthy representation 
of " the fii'st gentleman in Europe," looking more 
like some country actor performing a burlesque, and 
exactly in the attitude of Lord Bateman's " proud 
porter." 

We were considerably entertained by a full length 
portrait of James the Second's Queen, when in exile. 
She is consoling herself by feeding a pet lamb, 
while her crown is laid on the ground in a garden, 
her dog lies a her feet, her flowers are scattered 
about, and a book is in her hand, so she is apparently 
resolved to find comfort in something, and her Ma- 
jesty looks so fat and good-humoured, that the cares 
of abdication have evidently sat very lightly on her 
brow. She seemed by no means in the vein of ex- 
claiming, like the celebrated John Home, when 
vexed by some trifling disappointment, 

" Let petrifaction stop this falling tear, 
And fix my form for ever marble here !" 

A very antique portrait of Queen Mary is at 



212 GORDON CASTLE. 

Gordon Castle, said, of course, to be original, and I 
almost believe it. The date is 1568, the last year 
of her liberty, and it has the brilliant look of health 
and animation, which vanished, after every gay 
vision of power and glory had been blotted out by 
her tears. 

I have no song of youlb and hope. 

That does not close in care^ 

[ have no lale of woman's love 

That ends not in despair ; 

I only breathe the 7iame of joy 

To tell how soon it dies ; 

I only sing the songs that suit 

Thy notes, my harp of sighs. 

In the same collection is shown the portrait of 
a young beauty, who might certainly have rivalled 
Queen Mary herself She was the favourite friend 
of a former Duchess, who must have been superior 
to envy or jealousy, but the name of this lovely 
vision is forgotten by our cicerone, so she must re- 
main anonymous. Any young lady, with one fea- 
ture of her face, might set up for a beauty, for they 
are all equally perfect. The Magazine des Modes 
would describe her dress as " a robe of rich white 
satin, a scarf of torquoise blue, and her chesnut hair 
simply combed back off her forehead." The lovely 
countenance was painted so much to the life, that 
she seemed to blush when we looked at her. 

One of the ancient pictures in this collection 



GORDON CASTLE. 213 

represents Herodias carrying the head of John the 
Baptist in a charger; but the artist has given 
her much too gentle and feminine an expression, 
though, certainly, the sweetest coxmtenances do 
sometimes conceal the sternest minds; and when 
you see a fixed unalterable smile in any face, Avith 
a particularly subdued manner, the probabilities are 
ten to one that this habitual aspect has been assumed 
as a necessary veil to hide the real temper. 

The only cheerful portrait of Charles the First, 
that I ever beheld, is here! He has undeniably 
relaxed into a smile, and looks as if he might, occa- 
sionally in his life, have enjoyed a happy moment. 

Connoiseurs all agree in saying, that the finest 
painting in this collection is that of St. Paul rebuking 
St. Peter. The colouring and expression are so 
exceedingly forcible, that I could not get far enough 
off to catch the general effect advantageously, but 
it looked too hard and distinct, having very much the 
effect of a tableau vivant, without the gauze curtain. 

I could not but reflect, in looking around on 
those ancient walls and pictures, what a busy 
interesting world this has been before we entered 
it ! So many distinguished men ! so many beau- 
tiful women ! so many fine painters ! so many ven- 
erable books, in black letter, and in white letter ! 
so many banners now idly waving over our heads, 
and so many broad-swords rusting in their scab- 



^14 GORDON CASTLE. 

Imds, which wginte(J only tlie heroes who wiekleti 
ihem, to b^oiTifi as bright and as powerful as 
pver ! Ours is a busy world still, but how different ! 
What a sordid money^-making activity bestirs us 
j]Ow ! Men were fornierly estiffiated according tq 
Jheir heroism, their bodily strength, or their talents, 
jjut i?.ow tlifi standard of every thing is wealth — not 
dfy-en the use that is made of it, but the mere pos- 
session ! We examined in the armory Charles Ed- 
ward's leathern purse, with a silver clasp, which he 
presented to the then Duke of Gordon. It is 
scarcely n)ore empty now, than it was when he 
owned it; but where would any one find in the 
present day, partisans as ready on a chivalrous im- 
pulse to forfeit their wealth and estates ! The first 
question now, preparatory to engaging in any new 
undertaking is, " What per cent, will it bring ?" 
jVIen are flocking to Australia for twenty per cent, 
or to be devoured by the cannibals of New Zea- 
land for thirty, while even sportsmen no longer carry 
their guns on the moors, without m eye to profit, 
but make rrjoney by their very amusements. Many 
become poulterers now, and sell the birds they kill, 
or have them potted for the East Indian market ! or 
exchange them for shot I What old lady can ever 
hope now, to receive her annual box of grouse with 
any body's compliments, when, as Dr. Johnson 
wisely observes, " Few men give what they can sell?" 



GORDON cASTtfes 219 

It has been often remarked, that the richest and 
most extravagant Enghshmen generally turn ex- 
tremely saving when they enter Scotland, probably 
imagining that we are not accustomed to see much 
expense ; but among those who contract to supply 
dealers with game at so much per head, from our 
Highland moors, are found the youhg heirs to some 
of the highest honours and most extensive proper- 
ties in the south. GroUsfe arC) hoVfever, the uncon- 
scious benefactors of Scotland, by gathering the 
best company round them, as, without their attrac- 
tions, we should be almost entirely deserted. 

A charmirig sheltered garden lies close behind 
Gordon Castle, v^ry tastefully laid out, the gravel 
walks meandering like a chain round a brilliant 
patch-work of flow^er-beds, which are thus cut into 
diagonal squares, with here and there a morsel of 
smooth turf to vary the colouring. At some distance 
may be seen a still more beautiful parterre, which 
has been laid out in a stone quarry. The soil is, of 
couree, all artificial, but you can imagine nothing 
more picturesque than the strange irregularities of 
ground. It would almost weary you to look at the 
steep walks leading towards precipices, sloping 
banks, and shady recesses, varied by moss-houses, 
stone basins hewn from the quarry, jets d'eau, Egyp- 
tian obelisks, and a miniature Parthenon carved in 
the same rock on which it stands. At the gate are 



216 GORDON CASTLE. 

placed some inimitable old sculptured stones from 
the ancient parish church of Fochabers, which be- 
stow a look of great antiquity on the entrance, and 
the whole is enlivened by a brilliant profusion of 
showy flowers, and by the most emerald-coloured 
grass you can fancy. This is a small fragment of 
fairy land, wanting only the talking bird, the golden 
water, and the singing apple. After leaving the 
quarry, we entered a walk, shaded by enormous 
natural hollies, which must be magnificent when the 
dark varnished leaves are enlivened by their scarlet 
berries like bunches of coral. Many are more than 
forty feet high, with stems five or six feet in circum- 
ference, and some being grouped together in clus- 
ters of a dozen large trunks, I almost mistook for 
moderate sized beeches. It is a curious provision of 
nature for the protection of hollies, that all the lower 
leaves, Avithin reach of cattle, are furnished vdth 
strong prickles to serve as a defensive armour, but 
the upper branches are not. 

We were misled, on many occasions to-day, by 
the uncommon size to which several species of trees 
have enlarged themselves. You were diverted for- 
merly, by the little girl at her lessons, who said, 
" How can I make a mistake now, when I am 
four years old !" but we, at a still more advanced 
period of life, made a few to-day, during our wan- 
derings through the park. Two fine aspen trees 



GORDON CASTLE. 217 

passed themselves off upon me, at a distance, for full 
grown oaks, till I observed them in a quiver of agi- 
tation. Their stems were fourteen feet round, and 
before severing into branches, the solid trunk rose 
thirteen feet high. The bark was of so imiform a 
tint, and the arch of leaves so perfect, that they 
looked like two pillars of Elgin Cathedral come out 
to take the air. Sir James Hall once planted a 
cathedral of trees at Dunglas, the long aisles rep- 
resented by the tall white columns of the poplar 
trees, the branches of which formed, at one end, a 
fine Gothic window. 

Near those aspens at Gordon Castle, we saw a 
noble ash tree, living in a most critical situation. 
The massy trunk had been split from top to bottom 
in the late hurricane, but both halves were yet 
standing. At every breeze they yawned asunder, 
and closed again, creaking and groaning in a most 
fearful manner, as if haunted by some troubled 
spirit. The leaves were still flourishing as gay as 
ever, unconscious of their impending fate, but this 
hoary patriarch of the forest is evidently struggling 
with a mortal wound, though we hurried to a gar- 
dener with information of the catastrophe, hoping 
that an iron bandage might, for some time longer, 

preserve it alive. When Lord S n, some years 

ago, intended cutting down several ancient ash 

trees, a friend induced him to grant them a reprieve, 

19 



218 GORDON CASTLE. 

by saying, in a tone of remonstrance, " Surely you 
will not d sturb the ashes of your ancestors !" 

The chief ornament of this ducal park is a 
graceful lime tree, beneath which stood the favour- 
ite seat of Duchess Jane, when surrounded by her 
chosen companions. We sat under the vast shadow 
of this forest chief, surrounded by a wall of leaves 
v/hich swept to the ground on every side, forming 
an arbour of 200 feet circumference, and there we 
recalled the gay spirits and joyous scenes which 
once enlivened this solitaiy bower. The Hama- 
dryad who presides here, must then have enjoyed a 
merry time of it ! Her Grace might almost have 
worn the bracelet of another equally celebrated 
Duchess, who, rather whimsically, desired this in- 
scription to be set on it in diamonds, " I shall never 
lose my spirits !" How happy for those who can 
keep such a resolution, but the power to do so re- 
quires a more secure foundation than our own most 
resolute intentions. 

One of the lodges in this park looks so exactly 
as if built of parliament cakes, that it has been 
called " The Parliament House." It is an excellent 
imitation of a Jager's house in Switzerland, and 
produces a very striking effect here. The old 
gamekeeper who kept it was so eager for sport, 
that the late Duke laughingly said to him one day, 
'' You would shoot your own grandfather, if he fell 



GORDON CASTLE. 219 

in your way 1" It used to be amusing long ago, 
before moors were " let furnished," to discover how 
very little conception the English had of game being 
ever preserved in the Highlands, as they fancied it 
was only necessary to land at Dundee or at Aber- 
deen, and to load their guns. A Scotch proprietor, 
some years ago, met a large party going north, fully 
equipped with guns and dogs, but could not precisely 
ascertain what moors they had leave upon, till at last 
it came out, that they were merely at random, " going 
to shoot in the north !" The rent of a barren moor 
is now almost equal to that of the best arable land ! 

Several years since, an English stranger, who 
had never probably seen grouse or red-deer even in 
the zoological gardens, returned from an excellent 
days's sport, saying he had shot eight head of deer ! 
They all turned out to be goats ! 

I was much amused to hear a narrow escape 
made by Sheridan when he was deer-shooting once 
in the north ; but his ingenuity was equal to every 
emergency, and delivered him on this occasion. 
The Duke of Atholl having furnished him with an 
escort of Highlanders, besides a luxurious and very 
substantial luncheon, he began the day's sport by 
sitting down to finish the wine and refreshments, 
during which unusual commencement of the cam- 
paign, his companions, after consulting aside for 
some time, came forward in a body, and sternly 
asked whether he wei-e any relation to " that 



220 GOKDON CASTLE. 

wicked fellow Sheridan of London, who had dared 
to abuse Lord Melville ?" 

" What do you take me for ?" answered Sheri- 
dan, with well-feigned indignation. " Related to 
such a fellow as that ! If I could only catch the 
rascal, I would hang him on the spot !" 

" So should we, as soon as look at hira !" re- 
plied the trusty escort, confidentially, and poor 
Sheridan, who frequently told the story afterwards, 
lost no time in making a pretext to hurry home. 

If Gordon Castle degenerate into a mere shoot- 
ing box, it has at least the attraction of a splendid 
deer-forest, which has become a more fashionable 
scene for sportsmen now, than even the moors. We 
were shown the horns of a red-deer, shot by Alex- 
ander Duke of Gordon after his Grace was eighty. 
A circle of deer's heads is placed round the room, 
each carrying an inscription to commemorate the 
history of his own death, how, when, where, and by 
whom he was massacred. Thus every skull be- 
comes in itself a monument and an epitaph ! 

We ought to believe any thing on sufficient evi- 
dence, and the very incredible fact seems now as- 
certained, that the deer eat their own horns ! It 
was proved to the satisfaction of a learned jury once, 
that a man had bit off his own nose, but this achieve- 
ment of the deer seems nearly as difficult. Game- 
keepers, to whom the horns might be a valuable 
perquisite, hardly ever find any stray antlers during 



GORDON CASTLE. 221 

the season at which they are shed, and fragments 
have been discovered occasionally in the animal's 
throat when dissected. One red-deer was found 
dead, having apparently committed suicide, as it was 
choked by a bit of its own horn. People who bite 
their nails, must have a somewhat similar propensity ! 

A lady remarked lately, that she felt thankful to 
be born in an age when worsted work was in 
fashion, as she never knew the real happiness of life 
till she tried it, but nothing shows more obviously 
the tedium suffered by gentlemen at home, than to 
observe the hardships they will gladly endure in 
search of what is called sport. A soldier would de- 
serve to be covered with militaiy glory for encoun- 
tering as many privations and difficulties to defend 
his country, as a drawing-room fine gentleman will 
cheerfully welcome in pursuit of a single red-deer. 
He spends nights in watching on the hills, days 
standing up to the knees in water, springs over peat- 
bogs, lies perdu for hours among the heather, crawls 
along the bed of a burn, or wades across a river, 
reckoning every thing a pleasure that promotes this 
fascinating amusement. A gentleman, lately, ac- 
customed to all his comforts, gravely remarked, after 
a few days' laborious experience, "• How pleasant it 
was, to lie all night under a plaid upon the hill-side, 
and to hear the rain pattering around !" 

We had rain " pattering" in abundance all the 
19* 



222 GORDON CASTLE. 

way from Gordon Castle, for now a ceaseless busy 
drizzle began. The foliage, however, formed so 
thick a canopy along the approach, that we scarcely 
remembered to raise an imibrella, though on reach- 
ing the high road, it had become, like the Nile, a 
river of mud. 

In passing, we made a leisurely survey of the 
fruit and vegetable gardens, containing six acres 
within the wall j and I took a turn also in the hot- 
houses, to remind myself of what summer used to be, 
when we had warm weather occasionally. Here 
we saw, in the richest perfection, figs, pines, grapes, 
peaches, nectarines, — every thing in short, except 
people to eat them, and around us were bowers of 
blooming plants, — cactusses drooping unnoticed, 
heaths looking beautiful in vain, and roses of a hun- 
dred varieties " wasting" no ! that hackneyed 

quotation is, like many others, worn to rags, and 
must positively be left oif. There ought to be a se- 
vere fine against every person now, who " sits like 
patience on a monument" — who " drags at each re- 
move a leno-th'ning chain" — who " blushes unseen" 
— who " flies from grave to gay" — or who " hints 
a fault and hesitates dislike," — but I shall not con- 
clude my letter, as you expect, by saying, that my 
heart is " untravelled," for with my whole heart I 
enjoy travelling, and regret every mile we leave 
behind, as if I were losing an estate. 



FOCHABERS. 



Lord Harry has written a novel — 

A story of elegant life; 
No stuff about love in a hovel, 

No sketch of a clown and his wife. 
But full of such elegant touches ! 

Our lips in derision we curl, 
Unless we are told how a Duchess 

Conversed with her cousin, the Earl. 

My dear Cousin, — The unfortunate man who 
had his choice of working in the mines, or reading- 
through a foho volume, preferred the bodily to the 
mental labour ; but you shall herewith be con- 
demned unheard to endure several folio pages this 
morning, and to work out a perfect mine of infor- 
mation, therefore, put on your spectacles of criticism, 
and accompany me through my life and adventures 
during a long and busy day. 

At Fochabers, Murray the innkeeper, w^ho retired 
from business this year, was originally a foundhng, 
and never had a guess of his own history, but all his 
life he annually receives a blank cover containing 
^£50. Now, there is a ready made novel for you at 
once ! According to all the rules of romance, he 
must some day find himself out to be, at least, a 



224 FOCHABERS. 

peer. I wonder what titles and estates will unex- 
pectedly prove to be his. 

The inhabitants of this little hamlet should all 
become literary characters, seeing, that besides the 
many academies already in action, a native of Foch- 
abers, recently bequeathed .£20,000 to establish 
schools here j and Mr. Dick left so large a fortune 
to increase the salaries of schoolmasters in the 
counties of Aberdeen, Banff, and Elgin, that here the 
alphabet might be printed in letters of gold. At the 
little inn of Grantown, our plates displayed the 
alphabet an inch long marked all round the margins, 
that travellers may lose no time in exercising their 
intellects while eating ; and I heard of lessons being 
taught in politics lately, by having political senti- 
ments written in pastry across the tarts for dinner ; 
but now, even while washing and combing their 
hair, children are taught appropriate verses ; and 
when I hear a mob of ragged boys singing, " This 
is the way we wash our face," it gives me pleasure 
to know that the ceremony is ever performed at all. 

Infant schools would be a most beneficial inven- 
tion for both parents and children in the lower ranks, 
even though it involve the Spaitan principle of a 
separation between them, if we could only obtain a 
concession on behalf of those very juvenile students, 
that there shall be half the quantity of lessons ad- 
ministered, and double the quantity of play allowed. 



FOCHABERS. 225 

The mechanical, and ahnost regimental exercisea 
which these baby scholars go through, under the 
misapplied name of amusement, amount to so strict 
a restraint on mind and body, that they should, in 
fairness, be ranked in the class of lessons, because 
nothing but perfect natural freedom can be a com- 
plete relaxation to children, and so incessant a drill- 
ing as the little creatures undergo must prove inju- 
rious and exhaustino;. 

We inspected one infant school near Fochabers, 
where ninety-five children under eight years old 
were improving their minds. I certainly never saw 
a more beautiful group ! Ninety of them at least 
were pretty, while all, without exception, looked 
clean, well-dressed, and healthy. The day having 
proved wet, none of them got out to play, but the 
pains-taking schoolmistress kept up, in a close hot 
room, a succession of singing, marching, and coun- 
termarching, mechanically, till the whole juvenile 
party were at last allowed to sit down, suffering 
agonies of drowsiness. When we entered, three or 
four had fallen back on the laps of those behind, 
others required a rousing like Baron Trenck, several 
were singing, the eyes rolling in their heads, a few 
had made a desperate struggle and cried themselves 
awake, while many approached as nearly to som- 
nambulism as Lady Macbeth. The continual sing- 
ing is in itself somniferous j a certain degree of 



226 FOCHABERS. 

monotony becomes quite unavoidable in the lessons ; 
and even the clapping of hands and beating of feet, 
though excellent as an occasional exercise for very- 
young pupils, cannot fairly come under the desig- 
nation of play, which must be the dictate of sponta- 
neous instinct and buoyant natural spirits. 

It is most true, as the well known proverb says, 
that " an idle mind is Satan's favourite workshop," 
and poor children, when left at home are lamenta- 
bly neglected, while they cannot but thus acquire 
confused notions of right and wrong, being more 
punished by their busy hard-working parents, 
for being merely troublesome, than for the 
worst moral offences, besides becoming hope- 
lessly idle, ignorant, and slovenly, impeding the 
labours of those who support them, and learning 
neither habits nor principles in accordance with re- 
ligion. During the few years of childhood, there- 
fore, when, being too young for any profitable la- 
bour, they might have time to learn the reading of 
their Bibles, it is indeed a blessing that they have 
the opportunity to acquire all such knowledge of 
holy Scripture as human teaching can impart ; and 
certainly it has been a useful discovery of modern 
times, that when children are taught to read, they 
can be taught also to understand what "they read, 
therefore, much gratitude is due to those who, by 
the institution of infant schools, rescue young fami- 



FOCHABERS. 227 

lies from the ruin of both body and soul, which 
must, too probably, result from the unavoidable ne- 
glect which awaits them at home. Yet even the 
very best things may be overdone, so that the 
forced intellects and forced spirits of infants should 
be allowed a very large proportion of entire, uncon- 
strained relaxation, to recover their natural tone. 
Before seven or eight years old, the disposition, 
feelings, and principles, can successfully be regulated, 
but very little knowledge can be safely instilled at 
so feeble an age, without overstretching the facul- 
ties, as much as if a tottering child attempted to 
carry a burden intended for a man. The heart is 
capable of being trained before the head, but all 
that can be gained by unnatural stimulus in unripe 
age, is lost to mind and body afterwards. 

The four elder children at Fochabers exhibited 
astonishing powers of memory, and a knowledge of 
the Bible which a divinity student could scarcely 
excel. It was perfectly amazing ! No spectator 
could have been otherwise than delighted, as w^e 
were, and all I would advocate while discussing the 
system of early training among poor children, is, 
that for every hour of lessons, they should be al- 
lowed an hour of real undeniable romping, and be- 
come initiated occasionally in the mysteries of hide 
and seek, or blind man's buff. One of the most 
learned and accomplished scholars I ever knew, 



228 . CULLEN HOUSE. 

used to mention that he was formerly very partial 
to chess, but finding it more a study than a game, 
it did not afford sufficient relaxation to be consid- 
ered a mere amusement, nor was it useful enough to 
be followed as a pursuit, therefore, he unwillingly 
relinquished that interesting employment of time, 
but I saw him soon afterwards engaged with a joy- 
ous young party of children, playing at battledore 
and shuttlecock, which seemed thoroughly to unbend 
for the time, a mind long and successfully exerted 
for the best interests of man. We are all aware 
that, as the bow requires to be often unstrung, the 
more pliant it may be, the more absolutely necessary 
that reaction becomes. 

Apropos of very juvenile precociousness, I was 
greatly diverted lately to read an advertisement, of 
a new astringent application for the gums, beginning, 
" Children cutting their teeth are respectfully in- 
formed !" 

We had a charming drive from Fochabers to 
CuUen House, one of the most splendid places in 
Scotland, formerly the seat of Lord Findlater's family, 
as long as there was a Lord Findlater to inherit it, 
but now belonging to the family of Grant, Lord 
Seafield. It might be exercise enough during winter 
to walk every day through all the seven drawing- 
rooms, and to stir the seven fires ! You would be 
quite charmed by the magnificent suite of apartments. 



CULLEN HOUSE. 229 

and by the beautiful entrance-hall, decorated with 
rare exotics and marble busts, — the one being the 
most evanescent, and the other the most durable 
ornaments with which we can adorn our abodes. 

There are several battalions of pictures here, both 
foreign and domestic, many of which are extremely 
interesting. In the first room we saw such a con- 
gress of kings, that one would require Hume's His- 
tory of England to bring them all to mind. The 
fine full-length likeness of James the Sixth, by 
Mytens, encountered an odd adventure in its day, — 
a riotous mob, during the revolution, tore it down 
from the walls of Holyrood House, and were kick- 
ing this royal portrait ignominiously along the street, 
when Lord Findlater, then Chancellor of Scotland, 
made a spirited attack on the angry multitude, and 
successfully rescued his Majesty from so degrading 
a situation. 

The extinct line of Lords Findlater inherited 
great talents, and were all considered supremely 
handsome, particularly the Earl who flourished when 
the Union was signed. The portrait of him at Cul- 
len House fully justifies his reputation, being of a 
most noble and commanding aspect, very unlike the 
flippancy of character he displayed, when, after 
signing the roll which put an end to the indepen- 
dence of Scotland, he coolly tossed away his pen, 
saying, " There is the end of an old song !" 
20 



230 CULLEN HOUSE. 

Six years afterwards, however, Lord Findlater's 
dormant patriotism was awakened by beholding 
various acts of injustice to Scotland, in consequence 
of which, he tried to get a new edition of the old 
song, having made a motion in the House of Lords 
to dissolve the Union ; and he divided the votes, 
fifty-four against fifty-four, but was ultimately de- 
feated by four proxies. 

Another Lord Findlater we saw who distinguish- 
ed himself as an agriculturahst, and introduced tur- 
nips in this neighbourhood, for which he will scarcely 
be thanked by the epicures in milk and cream. A 
poor criminal was condemned to severe punishment 
once, for stealing a turnip, because, as the judge 
sternly remarked, " turnips lead to legs of mutton." 

One family portrait in this gallery is admirably 
painted, and the hand has been thought so perfect 
a chef d'oeuvre, that an artist once came from Italy 
to study it. The countenance looks more alive 
than many living men ! This picture represents 
the most accomplished and highly gifted of all the 
Findlater family, who overstrained his great intellect 
until at length he became deranged, and died in the 
most melancholy of all ways. His expression of 
coimtenance looks excited, though indicating ex- 
treme talent, and his dress appears remarkably pic- 
turesque, but you will not easily suppose it graceful, 
when I mention that he is equipped in a loose yel- 



CULLEN HOUSE. 231 

low dressing-gown and a white nightcap ! By a 
curious coincidence I mistook his portrait for one of 
Cowper, who serves as another melancholy evidence 
how often " great wit to madness nearly is allied." 
The ladies in this family seem all to have been 
less good-looking than their lords, and if a " Book 
of Beauty" had been published in those days, would 
scarcely have been as well entitled to fill a page. 
The last Countess of Findlater was a foreigner, and 
became blind during many of her latter years. The 
portrait of her predecessor was hung up, as a mark 
of extraordinary respect, in the county rooms of Ab- 
erdeen, — a public testimony to female excellence 
almost unprecedented. When this Lady Findlater 
was told that, owing to the embarrassed condition 
of her husband's affairs, the estate must be sold, she 
firmly replied, " No ! not an acre !" and by extra- 
ordinary management she saved the whole of this 
beautiful property, besides which, she has signal- 
ized her memory by leaving a magnificent evidence 
of her taste and liberality. The house formerly 
stood in an almost unapproachable position, being 
nearly surrounded by a broad and very deep chasm, 
the sides of which were equally difficult to ascend 
or to descend, and almost impossible for a carriage, 
but Lady Findlater erected, at the expense of her 
own privy purse, a noble bridge of one splendid 
arch, sixty feet high and eighty-two feet wide, 



232 CULLEN HOUSE, 

which springs across the widely separated precipi- 
ces, and forms a beautiful object from the windows, 
as well as a most convenient access. 

The trees which adorn this glen are particularly 
fine, and the river scenery most enchanting, with an 
abundant flow of crisp clear water, and the green 
sloping banks charmingly wooded and gayly peo- 
pled by a musical colony of birds. One great de- 
light of the country arises from the intimacy we 
form with all the animal species, which soon be- 
come our familiar friends; cattle, horses, dogs, 
sheep, deer, cows, and every living creature, be- 
come a source of interest, whose habits of life, tem- 
per, manner, and conduct, it is a perpetual amuse- 
ment to study. Even a bee-hive is equal to any 
rout in a city, being as crowded, hot, and noisy, 
while each individual carries a sting which may or 
may not be used as he pleases. I could sit for an 
hour giving language to their busy hum, or, like 
Gil Bias, making dialogues for the birds. 

Over all the windows of this venerable pile may 
be seen eyebrows of handsomely sculptured stone, 
with initials, dates, coats of arms, and grotesque 
heads, in addition to which, several moral and re- 
ligious sentences are inscribed in very antique char- 
acters. Two of these which I deciphered contain 
very sound divinity, and convey a pleasing testimony 
to the spirit of piety in which this ancient house was 



CULLEN HOUSE. 233 

originally founded, and for which, in the existing 
generation, it is still pre-eminent, — " Faith is the 
ground of our hope," we find engraved beside one 
window, and near that which adjoins it, " Hope is 
the anchor of faith." 

Our drive towards Banff led through a rich 
granary, where, not many years ago, the whole 
countiy was a wide wilderness of bog. Here the 
poor can scarcely be called poor at all, they are so 
liberally attended to by Lord Fife, the chief proprie- 
tor in this neighbourhood, who is said to employ 
above three hundred persons on the grounds of DufF 
House alone, giving work to those who will work, 
and money to those who prefer being idle. The 
daily distribution which takes place here of gold and 
silver coin would astonish even Dr. Alison, and out- 
run his utmost wishes, but the system produces many 
practical illustrations of that old German proverb, 
" a shilling earned is worth two shillings begged." 
It is a pleasure, at the same time, to know that all 
who will obey the fourth commandment, which as 
imperatively orders people to labour during six 
days of the week, as to rest on the seventh, may 
there find employment ; and I was much amused to 
hear, that when children are at work on the gravel 
walks, a shilling is frequently concealed under the 
stones, that the first who rakes it up may receive 
this welcome reward for diligence and activity. 
20* 



234 BANFF. 

What a curious contrast might be drawn be- 
tween the munificence of Lord Fife, who is said to 
distribute a larger income on gratuitous charity than 
any nobleman in Scotland, and the parsimony of his 
predecessor, Lord Braco, who picked up a farthing 
on his own approach once, and being earnestly im- 
portuned for it by a beggar, hurried the treasure into 
his pocket, saying, " Fin' a farthing to yoursell, puir 
body I" This old nobleman was so celebrated a 
miser, that I felt much inclined to sound the pannels 
and floors at Duff House, in search of hidden trea- 
sure. 

Several very primitive customs are still observed 
in this part of the country. When farmers come 
to market, they pay nothing at the inn for being 
lodged or entertained, but some time afterwards, 
" mine host" performs a tour of visits among all 
those who favoured him with their company, and 
then he graciously accepts presents, according to 
the wealth or the gratitude of his ci-devant guests, 
who load him with hay, cheese, butter, eggs, or 
poultry, till, like the lady in Roman history, he is 
almost buried beneath the weight of gifts and offer- 
ings heaped upon him. A very convenient custom 
is also observed by poor people, when about to 
marry upon nothing, who have what is appropriately 
called "a penny wedding." The happy couple 
call on each of their neighbours to announce the 



BANFF. 235 

propitious event, and to inquire at the same time 
what the friends are willing to subscribe towards 
increasing and prolonging the comfort of their 
wedded life. At these marriages two hundred peo- 
ple sometimes assemble, while no guests are ex- 
pected to appear without an offering in some shape 
or other, a loaf, a cheese, a bottle of whiskey, or 
even, in cases of extreme poverty, half-a-dozen 
eggs. The entertainment which ensues is kept up 
occasionally for several days, and instead of bottle- 
sliders, on which to pass the bottles, they are fre- 
quently placed on blue bonnets. 

Every mortal is weary of listening to accoimts 
of the melancholy festivities which take place at 
Highland funerals, but I could not help being 
amused to hear, that when three Strathspey lairds 
set out to attend the burial of the late Rothiemur- 
chus, one of them gravely remarked, " How drunk 
we shall all be this time to-morrow !" 

At a great chieftain's house where guests used 
formerly to be over the mast-head in claret and 
champagne, but where modern sobriety and decorum 
have been introduced by the present proprietor, an 
old Highland laird was heard indignantly muttering 
to himself as he left the table, " Oich ! if this isn't 
the first time she ever dined at Castle Grant, and 
was able to go up the stairs by hersell." 

I was shocked to hear that an old clergyman. 



236 BANFF. 

well known for his convivial propensities, who died 
last year, wishing his funeral to become peculiarly 
jovial, bequeathed a large stock of claret for his 
friends to finish on the occasion, and his old boon 
companions standing in a circle round the grave, 
filled their glasses to his memory, and afterwards 
poured a share of the contents on the earth beneath 
which he was interred. 

The neat and cheerful town of Banff is proverb- 
ially alluded to by the Scotch as Coventry is in 
England. If one of the common people be angry 
at another, he exclaims in a tone of bitterness, " Go 
to Banff!" I felt perfectly well satisfied, however, 
to visit this very respectable town, though often ex- 
tremely indignant formerly, at being told by our old 
nursery-maid to go there. The streets were clean 
and airy, though not particularly remarkable in any 
way, but probably the inhabitants contrive to be 
very happy here, and if not, we cannot help them. 

The object of chief interest in this neighbour- 
hood is DufF House. The park seems many miles 
in circumference, beyond which, we admired in 
every direction the fine fields brought into cultiva- 
tion, and the flourishing hedges planted by Lord 
Fife, who has resided here uninterruptedly for some 
years past in strict seclusion, occupied in benefiting 
the place and people around. The style of archi- 
tecture here, is, like most of Adams's plans, quite 



DUFF HOUSE. 237 

French, a tall, square, handsome edifice, of massy 
proportions, ornamented with Corinthian pilasters, 
and externally scattered over with stone vases and 
statues, but the house is greatly in want of wings to 
give it lightness. Within we found it perfectly 
Louvrized with pictures, all remarkably interesting, 
and many first rate works of art, at which criticism 
may vainly level her eye-glass. 

You never saw walls so crowded as these with 
heroes, statesmen, authors, and beauties of former 
days, every body, in short, who ever lived, and a 
great many more. We might have called over a 
muster-roll of all the celebrated names in Scotland, 
or elsewhere, and the answer would be, "Herel" 
It appeared like living a century in an hour, when 
we paraded through ten or twelve large rooms, 
glancing along the line of celebrated personages, 
whose names had once resounded throughout the 
world. How many stories and remembrances rushed 
into our thoughts as we contemplated the features 
with which they had passed through life, and tried 
to trace an expression suited to their well-known 
characters and adventures. It was a singular pano- 
rama ! The great, the good, the wicked, and the 
profligate, all side by side in a strange equality, that 
seemed like that of the grave itself! Among other 
odd combinations, we observed one uncongenial 
quartette, consisting of Dr. Dodd, Dean Swift, 



238 DUFF HOUSE. 

George Buchanan, and lastly, John Knox, of whom 
the Regent Morton said in his funeral panegyric, 
" There lies he who never feared the face of man." 
He was, indeed, one who, to use the language of 
Shakspeare, " took the buffets and rewards of for- 
tune with equal thanks," being singly and solely 
devoted to the cause he had embraced ; but in the 
collision of opposite opinions, how carefully should 
the very best of Christians guard against excess ! 
Our venerable Scottish reformer was far from de- 
siring that wide devastation among our churches for 
which his own words seemed to give a license, 
w^hen he said, " Pull down the nests, and the rooks 
will fly," and for uttering which. Dr. Johnson said, 
he should have been buried in the highway ; but 
those who once rouse the multitude to violence, 
might as well throw down the bars of a menagerie, 
and expect still to master the powerful and danger- 
ous inhabitants. In the one case as much as in the 
other, the weak govern the strong by intellectual 
superiority, but the moment mere animal force 
comes into play, this aspect of affairs is entirely 
reversed. 

The old housekeeper here, a well-known per- 
sonage, who has been sixty years in office, having 
learned by rote, a hst of the pictures and artists, 
makes most amusing havoc of the foreign names, 
" Sir Francis Kennawlis for Knollys, and Sir God- 



DUFF HOUSE. 239 

frey Kennawler," but she was peculiarly perplexed 
by the approximation of names between a fat laugh- 
ing Moliere, and a dark Spanish-looking Murillo. 
The good woman would have a poor chance of tol- 
eration from the gentleman who broke off his mar- 
riage with a young lady, because she betrayed such 
ignorance as not to know the difference between 
Mrs. Montagu and Lady Mary Wortley Montague ! 

One of the best pictures here, a miniature in oil, 
of a philosopher contemplating a skull, was painted 
by the celebrated blacksmith, Van Eyck — not Han- 
del's harmonious blacksmith, but one of still greater 
notoriety. 

We admired, in one room, a conclave of bloom- 
ing beauties, all associated together without very 
special reference to rank or character, but each ap- 
parently balloted for on the score of pre-eminent 
loveliness. No eastern harem described by Lady 
Mary Wortley Montague could produce a group of 
Sultanas at all to be compared with Lucy Waters, 
Lady Carlisle, Jane Shore, Lady Castlemain, the 
Countess of Coventry, Queen Mary, the Duchess of 
Portsmouth, or Nell Gwyn — a pretty set in every 
sense ! What some people would call mixed soci- 
ety — or rather unmixed, where none were quite 
respectable. 

Ah ! Shore could tell what ills from beauty spring, 
And Sedley curs'd the charms which pleased a king. 



240 DUFF HOUSE, 

Several of these ladies wore hoops, expanding 
their dresses till they looked like a tent, covering 
half an acre of carpet, but though costumes invented 
by the caprice of fashion become, in a few years, 
ludicrous even in the eyes of those who wore them, 
such lovely features, moulded into beauty by nature's 
own magical touch, are admired alike in every suc- 
ceeding age, and in every varied rank. 

One of the most curious portraits here, is a full- 
length in black, representing the Duchess of Rich- 
mond, by Vandyke. Her Grace looks as if she had 
lived on nothing more solid all her life than po- 
etry and sentiment, reading an elegy for breakfast, 
and a sonnet for dinner. The matrimonial part of 
her history is much more extraordinary than fiction ! 
She married first a wealthy man of low origin, who 
very complaisantly died soon, leaving her a rich 
widow. Having been next engaged to Sir George 
Rodney, he was treacherously jilted for the Earl of 
Hertford, on which occasion her disappointed lover 
penned a farewell letter in his own blood, and killed 
himself Her second husband, the Earl, having in 
due time expired, she mounted another step in the 
ladder of preferment by marrying the Duke of Rich- 
mond, and being once more set at liberty, her am- 
bition aspired to a crown, and she set her widow's 
cap at old King James the I., who actually proved 
invulnerable, and thus cruelly stopped the career of 



DUFF HOUSE. 241 

her promotion, when she had probably often sohlo- 
quized, hke Lady Macbeth, " Glamis and Cawdor ! 
the greatest is behind !" 

We admired much a lovely picture of the youno- 
Chevalier St. George when a boy, dressed in crim- 
son and gold. The Chevalier D'Eon appeared also, 
in full uniform, his face like the knocker on a door; 
and not far off Colonel Gardiner, the hero of Pres- 
tonpans, a fine military-looking figure in full capar- 
ison for battle, wearing a pair of jack boots so 
enormous that you wonder how he ever got into 
them, or is ever to get out. There never died on 
the field of battle a braver soldier or a better Chris- 
tian, and most heroically did he realize his word, 
that " having one life to sacrifice for the good of his 
country, he would not spare it !" His own regi- 
ment fled, but he cheered on another which had 
been deprived of its colonel, and was twice severely 
wounded before receiving the mortal blow of which 
he died. Then having finished his earthly duties, 
we may believe and hope, that his emancipated 
spirit experienced the truth of that faith in which 
he had a short time previously said, " Let me die 
when it shall please God ! I am sure I shall go to 
the mansions of eternal glory, and enjoy my God 
and ray Redeemer in heaven for ever." 

A portrait is here of George the Second, who 
seems intending to be dignified, but looks as if he 
21 



242 DUFF HOUSE. 

were beginning a minuet ; and the first Earl and 
Countess of Fife are represented in robes as if 
walking at a coronation. The Admirable Crichton 
makes a noble appearance in the crowd — that hero 
possessing almost fabulous gifts and accomplish- 
ments, who was treacherously assassinated at the 
age of twenty -two, by his pupil, the Duke of Medi- 
na's profligate son. There is a wonderful intensity 
of expression, like life itself, in all the portraits of 
this remarkable being, and his conversation was so 
brilliant and captivating that people held in their 
breath when he spoke. 

The Constable of Bourbon's is an interesting 
portrait ; and Lord Chesterfield is here, looking 
polite even on canvass. 

If I might assume the appearance of any one I 
chose, you would see me return with the countenance 
of Mrs. Abingdon, who is represented archly glancing 
out from behind a curtain, with so animated an 
expression, and such a glow of youth and loveliness, 
that it would enliven any one to look at her. Even 
the great moralist Dr. Johnson found this lady irre- 
sistibly fascinating, and when rallied by a daring 
friend for having gone to the theatre once when she 
acted, he replied, " When the piiblic cares the 
thousandth part for you that it does for her, I will 
go to your benefit too !" Madame de Montespan's 
portrait might be an imaginary houri in paradise, it 



DUFF HOUSE. 243 

is of such unearthly beauty, but without a spark of 
intellect, and not at all likely to have captivated 
Lavater. 

Two peeresses might dispute the palm here of 
personal pre-eminence. The notorious Duchess of 
Cleveland, full length, in blue velvet, and the late 
Duchess of Gordon, wearing her robes of state, and 
looking like majesty personified. I could write on 
for ever about this gallery, which might comprise a 
history of all mankind, and womankind also, but 
you will begin to complain that my letter is all vel- 
vet gowns and damask curtains. 

" Lastly, and to conclude," as clergymen say in 
their sermons, we observed a portrait in Raeburn's 
best style, of Lord Fife himself, wearing his undress 
military unifoi-m, when he commanded the Inver- 
ness-shire militia, and so like that any old soldier 
in passing must have saluted. But an extin- 
guisher has fallen over my paper, and it is time to 
cut myself short, though that is scarcely possible 
now, after covering nearly a yard and a half of let- 
ter paper. You have seen the sympathetic ink 
which becomes visible only when held to the fire, 
but I wish mine may disappear as soon as you begin 
to think me " dull, stale, flat, or unprofitable." As 
people say that a letter should be a sort of family 
newspaper, you may now consider my name as re- 
corded among the fashionable departures from Banff. 



FYVIE. 



Now planning ttiuch, now changing what we plann'd, 
Pleased by each trial, not by failures vexed, 
And ever certain to succeed the next ; 

Cluick to resolve, and easy to persuade . 

Crabbe. 

My dear Cousin, — If you ever wish to study 
*' the greatest happiness principle," make a tour in 
the Highlands, and be not over particular about ac- 
commodation, for the instant travellers become too 
anxious about comfort^ all comfort is at an end, and 
I care little for the vicissitudes of carpets or no car- 
pets, arm-chairs or three-legged stools, as long as 
every thing is clean, and we get no practical illus- 
trations in our sleeping apartments of entomology, 
— or damp-ologj, the greatest bugbear of all on a 
journey. 

Without meaning a disrespectful thought of any 
other county, I must say there are none superior to 
Aberdeenshire for interest and grandeur, both natural 
and architectural. Fyvie Castle, built in the time 
of Robert Bruce, being considered one of the most 
extensive, picturesque, and ancient edifices in Scot- 
land, A resolved, coute qui coute, to take a 

glimpse of it, little anticipating what the cost would 



FYVIE. 245 

be, for it turned out an adventure of first rate annoy- 
ance and difficulty, but " all is well that ends well." 
A stage-coach passes daily within half a mile of 
the little village of Fyvie, about dinner-time, so we 
resolved to be dropped there one morning, and to 
be picked up the next, thus allowing time to scruti- 
nize the Castle before proceeding to Aberdeen. 

After making a good start from Banff, there 
came on such a down-pour of rain, that it was quite 
a natural curiosity for heaviness, and continued to 
fall with unremitting diligence till night. In short, 
it was what Matthews described as " a dreepin' wat 
day," and when we paused at the turnpike to alight, 
I could not but hesitate about being drowned alto- 
gether in attempting to gain a glimpse at Fyvie 
Castle. The road seemed one unfathomable depth 
of mud, and we had half a mile to wade before 
reachino; the inn ! No rational beinq; would have 
attempted it, but I had seen a most eccentric look- 
ing porter's lodge, which excited my unbounded 
curiosity, as a sample of what might be seen, and 
several persons strongly recommended us not to be 
easily discouraged, and made light of the distance — 
made still hghter of the rain, and when I inquired 
what sort of inn we were likely to find at Fyvie, a 
factor who lived near, protested it was " clean and 
tidy, though not very large." All this sounded ex-^ 
ceedingly plausible, till I discovered, on ahghting, 
21* 



246 FYVIE. 

that this personage, who had been shivering outside, 
wished to fill up our vacant seats within, and hurried 
off, wishing us " a pleasant evening !" 

After a most fatiguing promenade beneath a 
perfect cascade of rain, we reached the village, 
and looked about in vain for any sign, or signs to 
indicate the Royal Hotel of Fyvie. No " Red Lion," 
or " Blue Goat," or " Aberdeen Arms" could be 
seen, but I was at last directed to a small cottage, 
looking like the wing of an adjoining grocer's shop. 
Here we found the landlady drinking tea, and sur- 
rounded by a numerous family of untidy children, 
and the whole party seemed to be struck speechless 
with consternation at the unwonted apparition of 
travellers. Chaucer tells us, the Queen of the 
Fairies once positively promised, that no woman 
should ever, on any occasion, be at a loss for an 
answer, but her majesty was faithless on this occa- 
sion, as none seemed to suggest itself now, when 
we requested the worthy hostess to provide us with 
rooms, and, indeed, the case at first wore a most un- 
promising aspect. The only suite of apartments in 
her house consisted of one sitting-room, containing 
a sort of contrivance which called itself a bed, and 
across the passage was a closet, about six feet 
square, vidth a borrowed light, and containing a 
small sofa-bed, into which a traveller, whatever his 
dimensions might be, must contrive, like a soldier 



FYVIE. 247 

forcing on regimental shoes, to fit himself, whether 
they fit or not. 

Even these apartments it would have been too 
much happiness to find disengaged, but a stranger 
had arrived some hours before, and secured the par- 
lour-of-all-work, where he was now drinking tea ! 
What an idea of unspeakable luxury and comfort it 
gave me at this moment to hear of any one in the 
full enjoyment of a fire and a cup of hot tea ! I 
never knew their value before ! 

You are acquainted wdth a gentleman who 
locked his door, and pretended to be asleep one 
night at an inn, when he saw a party of ladies 
arrive, who could not, he was aware, be accommo- 
dated, and for whom he had determined not to dis- 
compose himself, but Mr. Menzies, the fortunate 
occupant of the first and only floor at Fy\4e, was 
quite of a different school, and having accidentally 
heard of our arrival, he, with the most chivalrous 
politeness, insisted on relinquishing the whole house, 
and hurried off in the rain, saying he could depend 
upon being welcome at the clergyman's hospitable 
manse, where he intended now to remain. 

We had scarcely time to express our thanks 
before he vanished, leaving not a trace behind, and 
we proceeded without loss of time, to examine into 
the capabilities of the larder at Fyvie, where the 
bill of fare for dinner being a total blank, we found 



248 FYVIE. 

it would be imprudent to quarrel with our bread and 
butter, and sat down with the best of all appetites 
to tea. You know of one gentleman who lets an 
inn near his moors, on condition that the landlord 
shall make it too uncomfortable for any traveller or 
sportsman to think of remaining there ; and I can 
bear testimony in favour of the worthy host there, 
that for breakfast we had tea without cream, salt 
butter, oatcakes, and porridge, but if there be ever 
a vacancy in the management of that concern, I 
could recommend a very efficient successor not a 
hundred miles from Fyvie. 

We were in the act of laughing over all our 
discomforts, when the door opened, and our good 
genius Mr. Menzies appeared, accompanied by the 
parish clergyman, who, the moment he heard of our 
predicament, had " cloaked, umbrella'd," and hur- 
ried over to us with so cordial an invitation to his 
fireside, that before half an hour elapsed, we were 
comfortably domesticated with our reverend friend 
and his sister, in their pretty little sitting-room, 
leaving to Mr. Menzies the luxurious accommoda- 
tion of the inn. 

This evening passed away most enchantingly, 
though my happiness was rather impaired by one 
very teasing perplexity. No imaginable device 
could enable me to discover the name of our very 
hospitable host ! I clandestinely examined the 



FYVIE. 249 

title-pages of two Bibles on the table, thinking his 
designation must be inscribed there, but the only 
information conveyed I knew already, as the inscrip- 
tion was, " Manse of Fyvie !" The silver forks and 
spoons at supper were equally uncommunicative ; I 
could not see the cover of an old letter in any quar- 
ter to assist me I In short, my ingenuity was 
balked on every side, till next morning, when it ac- 
cidentally occurred to me, that I had not yet exam- 
ined the corner of a towel, on which, to my great 
relief, I discovered the name of our friend and ben- 
efactor, Mr. Manson, which we shall certainly not 
forget, connected as it is with the recollection of 
such a deliverance, followed by so agreeable an 
evening. 

Dr. Patterson, author of " The Manse Garden," 
might see his book reduced to practice here, where 
the flower-beds are in brilliant order, and the vege- 
tables fit to gain the prize at any competition. The 
perfection of order around this " glebe," is said to 
be quite in harmony with the good order of a whole 
parish under similar superintendence, for in every 
thing belonging to any individual, we generally 
trace the same spirit of activity or of indolence, 
and I have often observed, that as a straw tells how 
the wind blows, even the aspect of a gentleman's 
lodge may be considered a tolerably fair criterion 
of how the whole estate is managed. The concerns 



250 FYVIE, 

of others are not likely to meet with the best atten- 
tion from any one who is lazy about his own, or 
who must use, on mere temporal affairs, the melan- 
choly language of Scripture, " Mine own vineyard 
have I not kept !" but in this small district we found 
three schools in admirable order, which were in- 
spected by Mr. Menzies, the trustee appointed to 
examine the three counties in which Mr. Dick's 
legacy to schoolmasters must be distributed, and 
who reported them all to be extremely efficient. 

I crossed the village chm'chyard, through a wil- 
derness of wet grass, and sheltered by an umbrella, 
to visit the grave-stone, adorned with hour-glasses 
and skulls, of Annie Smith, a miller's daughter, 
who was heroine of that much esteemed old ballad, 
" Tifty's Annie." This young lady, having been 
admired by the Laird of Fyvie,who offered to marry 
her, she unfortunately preferred the trumpeter of the 
Castle, and perseveringly discouraged his master's 
suit. Her brother, after vainly endeavouring to ex- 
tinguish her disinterested preference of this long- 
winded lover, at last became so furiously irritated, 
that, in a paroxysm of rage, he struck her violently. 
The fair Annie, being of very sensitive feelings, 
never recovered the shock, but pined away and 
died. During her last moments, she entreated to be 
turned towards the tower of Fyvie Castle, where 
her favoured lover was usually to be seen blowing 



TYXIE. 251 

his trumpet; and after his decease, the generous 
Laird of Fyvie himself erected a leaden image of 
his more successful rival, which is now conspicu- 
ously to be seen blowing his trumpet towards the 
mill of Tifty, and thus commemorating that melan- 
choly tragedy. The old ballad is extremely inter- 
esting, and several of the verses show off the aris- 
tocratic lover to immense advantage. 

" Her father struck her wondrous sore, 
As also did her mother ; 
Her sisters always did her scorn ; 
But -woe be to her brother. 

Lord Fyvie he did wring his hands, 
Said, ' Alas ! for Tiftie's Annie,' 
The fairest flower's cut down by love, 
That e'er sprung up in Fyvie. 

woe betide Mill o' Tiftie's pride. 
He might have let them marry ; 

1 should have giv'n them both to live 
Into the lands of Fyvie. 

Ye parents grave, who children have. 
In crushing them be canny, 
Lest when too late you do repent, — 
Remember Tiftie's Annie." 

In the same churchyard we saw a beautifully 
sculptmed monument to the Honourable General 
Gordon, representing a phoenix rising out of the 
flames, which might have been considered a fine 



252 FYVIE CASTLE. 

Christian emlDlem, tut I was disappointed to observe 
only an inscription from Ovid in Latin. Our sym- 
pathy with the dead is only perpetuated when we 
find a record of that Christian faith and hope, which 
must ultimately bring all who really felt it, into one 
happy and everlasting home, but a heathen poem, 
beautiful as it may be, speaks of nothing beyond the 
grave, and is, therefore, unsuitable on a tomb-stone, 
that solemn memento, closing over all the earthly 
concerns of a mortal being, and intimating, whether 
in the language of Scripture or not, that his spirit 
has been summoned into the awful presence of our 
eternal Creator. 

Next morning we laid siege to Fyvie Castle, 
which looks like the Methuselah of old houses, and 
ought to be placed in the Antiquarian Museum. 
The gate is a perfect cluster of steeples, and the 
same pointed towers adorn the edifice itself, each 
surmounted on its lofty pinnacle by fantastic leaden 
figures, placed in every variety of attitude. They 
give it somewhat the look of a magician's enchanted 
dwelling, where the prisoners have been turned into 
stone, and I suppose any daring knight who can 
blow a blast on the trumpet of Tifty's Annie's lover, 
will see the whole crumble into powder. 

Large as this magnificent old castle is, a perfect 
romance in stone and mortar, the more ancient half 
was taken down some years ago, having become 



FYVIE CASTLE. 253 

ruinous, and threatening a downfall. The entrance, 
through a wall nine feet thick, is defended by an 
outside door, studded with massy knobs of iron, and 
within that powerful defence stands a cross-barred 
gate of singular construction, so complicated in 
workmanship, that the neighbouring blacksmith con- 
fessed he could not divine how it was manufactured. 
We hazarded about six guesses, which were all proved 
to be wrong ; and as no one living is in the secret, 
I " gave it up !" In the lower part of the south- 
western tower, there is said to be an arched room, 
which, having neither door nor window, is totally 
inaccessible; but under such circumstances there 
can only be a conjectural knowledge of its exist- 
tence at all. 

What was formerly the prison at Fy vie Castle is 
now metamorphosed into the wine cellar, where 
people must be locked out, instead of being locked 
in. We were not, of course, made free of the cellar, 
but I became greatly interested in seeing the fire- 
proof charter-room, quite an appalling dungeon, en- 
tirely lined with iron. A second closet within was 
exhibited, the iron door of which requires the strength 
of two persons to open ; and when the housekeeper 
desired me to walk in, I thought, with a shudder, of 
" The iron shroud," and of " The mistletoe bough." 
If ever I am afflicted with a nightmare, I shall cer- 
tainly fancy myself shut by a spring-lock in that old 
22 



254 FYVIE CASTLE. 

dungeon at Fy\ie Castle ! Our cicerone observed, 
with some humour, in allusion to a certain very re- 
cent robbery, " This is a safer place than the bank 
at Aberdeen !" 

In all my experience of housekeepers, which has 
not been small, I never met with one so shrewd and 
intelhgent as the lady in waiting here. The Aber- 
deenshire people are noted in Scotland for being 
alarmingly clever, very much as the Yorkshiremen 
are in England, therefore, I supposed at first, that 
our mistress of the ceremonies might be considered, 
perhaps at the ordinary average of Aberdeen talent ; 
but we were afterwards told, that her case is pecu- 
har, even in that neighbourhood. If ever we hur- 
ried past any thing worthy of notice, she eagerly 
summoned us back, repeatedly begged me to be 
more at leisure, and when I admired a quantity of 
beautiful coloured silk embroidery, adorned with 
flowers, which actually beat nature out and out, 
done by the Countess of Aberdeen, remarking, at the 
same time, that ladies were scarcely so industrious 
in the present day, she complaisantly replied, that 
" ladies now have many better occupations." 

When our visit drew towards a close, the good 
woman insisted beyond measure, that we should ac- 
cept a glass of wine ! A flight of fancy quite be- 
yond the imagination of any ordinary housekeeper ; 
and though w^e positively declined the offer, yet I 



FY VIE CASTLE. 255 

very gladly availed myself of a pressing invitation to 
inspect her own room. Here the walls were hung 
round with a perfect General Assembly of clergy- 
men, as large as life, dressed in their full canonicals, 
and positively you have often paid your shilling for 
seeing a worse exhibition. It was pleasing to be- 
hold so numerous a collection of Scottish worthies, 
though in general I admire the principle expressed 
by a Swiss clergyman, who declined sitting for his 
portrait, even at the earnest request of an attached 
congregation, on the ground of that text, " We 
preach not ourselves, but Jesus Christ the Lord." 
Owing to the affectionate partiality of many parish- 
ioners, we see in almost every exhibition of pictures 
a large proportion of clergymen, — then follows the 
advertisement of a print, price £1, Is. — and some 
years afterwards appears a posthumous memoir and 
frontispiece, edited by the son or nephew, who feels 
called upon to publish a " private diary," professedly 
intended for no eye but those of the writer and his 
own children. It is a great pity that persons who 
write such very confidential documents never seem 
to hit on the only sure plan of keeping them private, 
which can be very easily accomplished by the ap- 
plication of a taper, or by a short cut into the fire- 
place. Nothing should be more avoided, by those 
who profess Christian integrity, than to record 
thoughts and actions, under pretext that they shall 



256 FYVIE CASTLE. 

remain unseen and unknown, when all the time a 
consciousness is felt, that the whole world shall 
hereafter he invited to peep over the author's shoul- 
der, and read what has been said. The first attempt 
we find in the line of public privacy, was made by- 
Horace Walpole, in his entertaining letters, and 
since his time, those who stood the very highest for 
talent, and even for piety, have not disdained to wear 
the same flimsy veil, avoiding the responsibility of 
their own act, by throwing the blame upon survivors, 
and, as Dr. Johnson said, leaving a loaded gun be- 
hind them, which they have the inclination but not 
the courage to fire. 

The broad fine staircase at Fyvie Castle is con- 
sidered quite unique, and might be a study for any 
architect. It is ornamented with armorial bearings, 
and built in a succession of lofty arches, all placed 
at right angles, each flight of steps forming an arch 
over the flight beneath, so that we seemed to be 
ascending a pyramid of tunnels, caves, or bridges, 
all carved in nearly solid stone. The effect is most 
singular. 

It has been unhandsomely alleged, that tartan 
was first invented by the poor of Scotland, who 
could find nothing but rags of various colours to 
clothe themselves in ; and it has also been conjec- 
tured, that a clan-tartan is like a coat of arms, dif- 
ferent colours being peculiar to different families, so 



Fy\'IE CASTLE. 257 

that those who were aUied to the Stuarts adopted 
a stripe of red, and when they intermarried with 
the Bruces, a stripe of black was added; but all 
these assertions seem fabulous. Tartan is not sup- 
posed to be a very ancient manufacture, as none is 
to be seen on the oldest pictures. The Gordon 
plaid is one of the handsomest, and makes admira- 
ble furniture in some of the rooms here, enlivened 
by the family badge of a thistle on every chair. I 
like heraldic furniture, with as many coronets, crests, 
and quart erings as can be reasonably introduced, and 
quite admired the King of Wirtemberg for mount- 
ing regal crowns on his birds' cages. 

Every genuine Highland clan wears some pe- 
culiar plant as a badge of distinction; and you 
should always see the Macdonalds,on state occasions, 
mount a sprig of heather, the Macgregors carrying 
the pine, the Grahams and Gordons with a thistle, 
the Sinclairs living upon clover, and the Buchan- 
ans still armed with a birch rod, which they adopt- 
ed, I suppose, in commemoration of King James' 
tutor. 

Fyvie Castle changed proprietors frequently in 
former days. Originally the property of Sir Henry 
Preston, one of the many lowlanders whom Robert 
Bruce transplanted to this neighbourhood, it after- 
wards escaped to the Meldrum family, and then 
settled for some time in possession of the Chancel- 
17* 



258 FYVIE CASTLE. 

lor, Earl of Dunfermline, whose arms are sculptured 
on the Castle in every direction, inside and out, with 
full length inscriptions to commemorate his reign. 
This estate w^as finally purchased by the present 
proprietor's grandfather, Lord Aberdeen, when he 
married for his second wife the Duke of Gordon's 
daughter, and the property was given to her eldest 
son. General Gordon, whose portrait we greatly 
admired, being one of the best visible in this house, 
or perhaps in any other. The frame is hung round 
with the standards of his regiment festooned in loose 
draperies, which add greatly to the effect of his 
handsome uniform, and fine military aspect. He is 
equipped in full Highland garb, his plaid streaming 
in the wind, his cap raised in his hand, and his 
broad-sword extended in the air. Nothing can be 
more spirited and striking ! This fine picture seems 
meant to illustrate the family motto, " Follow For- 
tune." The General has evidently kicked down 
the Coliseum in passing, for it lies in ruins behind 
him, and he is rapidly ascending over broken pillars, 
cornices, and columns, to where Fortune sits aloft, 
ready to crown him with her choicest gifts, among 
which we must acknowledge, that Fyvie Castle was 
not the least I 

You would be in ecstasies with the park, varied 
by a river, a lake, a forest of noble trees, and flocks 
of sheep, which seem to understand the picturesque, 



ABERDEEN. 259 

they scatter themselves so judiciously over the slo- 
ping banks, and in short, the only fault that can be 
invented for this never-to-be-enough-admired place 
is, its being so outrageously difficult to reach. 

During our journey from Fyvie to Aberdeen, we 
saw several stony fields, most of which have now 
been improved into fertility, at a vast expenditure 
of labour, while others being perfectly paved across, 
no labour could improve. You might fancy in some 
parts of this country, that it rained stones instead of 
Avater ! and towards the west, where rocks abound 
most, the superfluous stones are swallowed up in 
what is called an " Aberdeenshire dyke," built about 
six feet high, and twenty or thirty feet broad, fit for 
a wagon to be driven on, and looking as if mate- 
rials had been collected for erecting a village. 
The operation of extracting these rocks from the 
ground, is like drawing teeth out of their sockets, 
but after inflicting so painful a process, the agricul- 
turist must have more than common pleasure, in 
seeino- the best entertainment for man and horse, 
turnips, wheat, oats, and barley, all flourishing 
around him. 

In Aberdeenshire, the enthusiasm lasted longer 
than in any other country for Charles Edward's 
family. The gardener at Lord Saltoun's proved so 
stanch to the cause, that when some officers on the 
Protestant side were visiting his master, a bet was 



260 ABERDEEN. 

laid that nothing could induce him to drink King 
George's health. Accordingly he was sent for, and 
the senior captain making him a handsome present, 
said he had heard much of his high character, and 
proposed that they should unite in pledging a bum- 
per to King George's health. The sturdy Jacobite 
raised his glass and drank it off, saying emphatically, 
" Here's to our rightfu' and lawfu' King !" The 
Captain started up in a rage, saying, " Why, you 
rascal ! that's not King George !" To which the 
other slyly replied, with a nod, " I'm vera muckle 
o' your way o' thinking, Sir !" 

Dr. Johnson remarks, " it seems like frivolous 
ostentation to write a solemn geographical descrip- 
tion of any city in our own island, as if we had 
been cast on some newly discovered coast." Here 
we are now at Aberdeen, the Oxford of Scotland, 
where, during many centuries past, whenever stran- 
gers pre-eminent for rank or learning arrived, the 
magistrates called in procession, and presented them 
with a bumper of wine in the ancient and illustrious 
" Cup of Bon Accord," but either the custom is 
now discontinued, or they have not yet heard of our 
arrival ! ! This town is equally celebrated for its 
haddocks and its professors, both being incompara- 
bly excellent in their line, and having long enjoyed 
great and deserved popularity. Diplomas are not 
given so promiscuously here as formerly ; but I 



ABERDEEN. 261 

once knew three English schoolmasters who had 
been created doctors at Aberdeen ; and Dr. Johnson 
said of one Scotch university, that it had got rich 
" by Degrees." My late father, who, besides re- 
ceiving diplomas from twenty-five foreign societies, 
was member of almost every literary and scientific 
institution at home, once received a humorous letter 
from his old cotemporary, Sir Adam Fergusson, 
directed to him as usual, and then followed 
« A.M.— F.R.S.— TUVWXYZ." 

In the college here may be seen the most ter- 
rifying portraits of our 106 Scottish monarchs, from 
a period cotemporary with the time of Abraham, to 
the present day, the whole succession being painted, 
I believe, by one artist, who should have been hung 
instead of his pictures. 

Mackray's hotel would be a perfect paragon of 
comfort, were it not for a set of noisy travellers re- 
cently arrived, who never tire of ringing the bells, 
so we have a merry peal from morning till night, 
and all night besides. Those who are least accus- 
tomed to have servants at command, become most 
arbitrary at an inn, and like to agitate the waiters, 
who are flying about the house like lamplighters to- 
night, and have burst into our quiet room several 
times by mistake in the hurry of hearing so many 
conflicting bells. You have not probably forgotten 
the old housekeeper who used to tell us formerly, 



262 ABERDEEN. 

that she had saved money all her life in order to be 
a lady for one week, and the chief part of her pro- 
jected dignity seemed to consist in arriving at a 
hotel, dressed in a silk gown, and in ringing for 
the waiters as often as she pleased ! I have never 
since observed people particularly severe on the 
bell-ropes, without thinking that they must have as 
short an allowance of consequence and authority. 

Being informed on Sunday, that Bishop Skinner 
intended to preach at the Episcopal Chapel, I went 
to hear him, but was shocked on entering, to be- 
hold, near the door, a fine full-length monumental 
statue in white marble, by Flaxman, bearing the 
solemn inscription, " Sagred to the Memory of 
Bishop Skinner!" I stood petrified with astonish- 
ment at this very sudden catastrophe ! How could 
it have escaped the waiters, who had all combined 
in assuring me he was to preach ! Not many min- 
utes afterwards, however, a clergyman, exactly re- 
sembling the marble image, stood face to face before 
it, gravely taking his station in the reading-desk, 
and commenced divine service, but it was not till 
the whole had been concluded that the mystery was 
cleared up. I then ascertained, that the episcopal 
dignity has continued hereditary in the same family 
for two generations, and that the venerable father 
of the present Bishop is commemorated by this mon- 
ument. The surprise was as great to me, but not 



ABERDEEN. 263 

quite so unpleasant, as that of a gentleman who 
lately observed a beautiful macaw sitting so im- 
moveably on a pole, that, never doubting the bird 
was stuffed, he walked close up, to examine the 
plumage, and only discovered his mistake, when it 
seized him by the nose. 

Aberdeen has always testified peculiar partiality 
for the Episcopalian church, and the inhabitants 
have recently erected a very handsome chapel, 
which cost jGGOOO, with a painted glass window, 
copied from Carlo Dolci's picture of our Saviour 
blessing the sacred symbols. In the Rev. Edward 
Ramsay's very interesting sermon on behalf of the 
Scottish Episcopal Church Society, we find a pic- 
ture drawn of clerical poverty and privation, not to 
be imagined or believed without such testimony as 
he bi'ings. One clergyman in the north derives at 
present, from two congregations, an income of only 
jESO, another receives only ^£20 per annum, a third 
announces his professional income to be <£2, another 
had a living, if it could be called a living, of ^£12, 
and the last I shall mention was starving on £6 ! ! 
Some of these worthy divines have congregations 
sufficiently wealthy, but I have generally observed, 
that the two professions to which we owe the deep- 
est obligations are those that people feel most un- 
willing to remunerate, the doctor and the clergyman. 

In one church at Aberdeen, we heard the most 



264 ABERDEEN. 

distorted attempt at English ever promulgated from 
a pulpit. It was very little easier to understand 
than if the preacher had been speaking on the plan 
recommended by an Irishman to a Highlander who 
addressed him in Gaelic, " Can't you turn your 
tongue the other way, and spake English !" Not 
a single vowel got fair play on this occasion, for 
Scotchmen who wish to be peculiarly correct, gen- 
erally omit them entirely ; and the prepositions, 
which puzzle our northern grammarians more than 
can be conceived, w^ere all on duty in the wrong 
place. If public speakers would only deal in plain, 
honest, broad Scotch, as the late Lord Melville used 
to do, it becomes perfectly comprehensible even to 
a cockney, but the distorted dialects people invent 
for themselves to conceal a provincial accent, be- 
come, to most listeners, quite an unknown tongue. 

Several streets in the venerable town of Aber- 
deen are exceedingly handsome, but being built of 
granite so very hard, that iron instruments are fre- 
quently broken in attempting to work it, the build- 
ings are almost entirely without ornament, in what 
architects would probably term *' a severe style." 
No trimmings are to be seen around the window^s, 
which look as if they were merely patched on the 
surface of a bare wall, — no decorations or porticos 
over the doors, but high, naked-looking piles of 
stone arise on every side, of a cold bluish white, 



DUNOTTAR CASTLE. 265 

which it chills one to look at. How different from 
the rich warm tint, like oiseau de paradis, on the 
free-stone of Elgin ; yet certainly Union Street is 
undeniably magnificent, and the bridge of a single 
arch stupendous. 

The late M. P. for this county, Mr. Fergusson 
of Pitfour, used to give the result of his Parlia- 
mentary experience in these words, which would 
astonish statesmen of the present day, who are all, 
we hope, so very different — " I have represented 
Aberdeenshire for half a century, during which, I 
never was present at a debate I could avoid, nor 
absent from a division I could get to. I have heard 
many speeches that convinced my judgment, but 
none that ever influenced my vote. I once, and 
only once, voted on my own opinion, but that w^as 
the most erroneous vote I ever gave. He who 
would be easy in Parliament, must always support 
administration, but never take office." 

Fourteen miles south of Aberdeen may be found 
the picturesque and extensive ruin of Dunottar Cas- 
tle, seat of the Keiths, Earls Marischal of Scotland, 
whose origin is so lost in antiquity, that they are 
conjectured to have been Princes of the Catti in 
Germany, before the Bourbon or Austrian dynasties 
were heard of The catastrophe of 1715 caused 
this ancient title to be forfeited ; but the last Earl 
nobly represented his long line of ancestry, for he 
23 



266 DUNOTTAR CASTLE. 

became the chosen and distinguished friend of Fred- 
erick the Great, and his brother, Marshal Keith, 
need only be named, to recall the most chivalrous 
recollections of bravery and generalship. The Em- 
press of Russia presented him with a sword valued 
at jei500, as a small testimony of her esteem, and 
after a life of warlike achievements, he died victo- 
riously on the field of battle. These were two of 
the most distinguished brothers Scotland ever pro- 
duced. The site of Dunottar Castle is in the ocean, 
perched on a high peninsula, nearly the whole of 
which is covered by the walls, which surround a 
spacious court. 

A gentleman once remarked of a dull visiter, 
" what a pity he is not ill-natured, as that would be 
an excuse for turning him out of the room ;" and 
you may probably begin to think, if this rather dry 
letter goes on much longer, that, spiced with a little 
peevishness, it might be quite fit for the fire; so 
leaving you to make the best of it, as you always 
do of every thing, I remain — at Aberdeen, as much 
as anywhere else — ^your affectionate cousin. 



CASTLE FRASER 



Lady Percy. " What is it carries you away ?" 
Hotspur. " Why! a horse, madam, a horse.'' 

My dear Cousin, — It occurs to me at this mo- 
ment, as being cm-ious,in how many different things 
people can be identified. When present by their 
features, when absent by their voices, and even 
w^hen out of both sight and hearing, by their hand- 
writing. All are so peculiar to the individual, that 
I begin to think the collecting of autographs a per- 
fectly respectable pursuit, as they certainly give 
some insight into character ; therefore, next time 
you write to me, take yom* best pen, in case of ap- 
pearing in my album. I suppose the Duke of Wel- 
lington and 0' Conn ell never accept an invitation to 
dinner, or are sorry that a previous engagement 
prevents them, without imminent danger of their 
being afterwards carefully embalmed on a folio 
sheet of paper, beside specimens of scribbling from 
Grace Darling, Joseph Hume, Dr. Chalmers, Lady 
Blessington, Lockhart, Wilson, Captain Hall, Han- 
nah More, Wilberforce, Mrs. Couch, and the whole 
Bench of Bishops. 

I never could have guessed half the annoyance 



268 CASTLE FRASER. 

endured in society by the race of lions, unless I had 
happened often to see Sir Walter Scott suffering 
under it, who would frequently have been thankful 
to put on a domino, or to adopt invisibility, as every 
body pricked forward their ears if he merely asked 
what o'clock it was, and ceased to breathe when he 
made a remaik on the weather. 

After leaving Aberdeen, we proceeded, in our 
usual touch-and-go style of travelling, through the 
charming valley of Strathdon, to inspect a large as- 
sortment of castles, new, old, and middle-aged, which 
embellish the rivers Dee and Don, two rival streams, 
the comparative merits of which are keenly disputed 
by lovers of the picturesque ; and as I actually do 
not claim to be a perfectly infallible judge on these 
subjects, you shall have the impartial verdict of a 
poet, who thinks he has settled the point by an 
elegant couplet : 

" One foot of Don's worth two of Dee, 
Except it be for fish and tree." 

Among the best remaining specimens of old 
Scottish fortresses, we admired none more than 
Castle Fraser, which seems in perfect preservation, 
with a curious old French court behind, and possess- 
ing a noble round tower, nearly a hundred feet 
high, quite a model of ancient architecture, being 
surrounded by handsome balustrades, and defended 



CASTLE FRASER. 269 

by stone cannon. I had unluckily obtained false 
information respecting this place, being assured that 
no access could possibly be obtained to see it, and 
an exaggerated representation was drawn, of its 
having been fortified inaccessibly against the intru- 
sion of idle curiosity. I merely ventured, therefore, 
to station our carriage as a corps de reserve at the 

gate, and with A for an advanced guard, stole 

upon tip-toe along the approach, concealed myself 
in an ambuscade behind a large plane tree, and from 
thence took a hasty survey of the premises. After 
having counted the windows, estimated the height of 
the towers, guessed the thickness of the walls, ad- 
mired the curious gable-headed windows, wondered 
at the number of projecting little turrets, and ascer- 
tained for certain, that the castle is a very great 
deal larger at the top than at the foundation, my 
curiosity having been rather increased than satiated, 
I took courage, and asked a servant boy in livery, 
who was passing towards the castle, whether we 
could possibly see the house, but he appeared panic- 
struck at the sight of strangers, stared as if we had 
been apparitions, and suddenly absconded at full 

speed ! A was amused beyond measure, but 

this castastrophe completely intimidated me, and I 
slowly retreated in good order, almost expecting the 
cannons to fire upon us. 

The country round this neighbourhood exhibits 



270 CASTLE FRASER. 

infallible symptoms of resident proprietors, the fields 
being all thoroughly drained, hedged, planted, cul- 
tivated, and presenting a general aspect of pros- 
perity. Our drive was delicious, till we reached the 
splendid modern, spic-and-span-new castle recently 
built by Mr. Gordon of Cluny. It is still quite damp 
from the press, and will not be habitable for some 
months. The plan is designed by a young unpro- 
fessional artist, who, wonderful to relate, omitted 
neither door, window, nor stair-case, and has been 
altogether so successful, that he deserves three 
rounds of applause. The granite is so very hard, 
that it would almost need to be cut with a diamond, 
but after years of laborious chiselling, a magnificent 
front of exquisite masonry has been completed, 
though, I dare say, to calculate the expense might 
puzzle Cooker himself. 

I must now give you a " graphic sketch," 
painted expressly for the occasion, of this extensive 
building. The style is very peculiar, and must be- 
long, I should guess, to no particular order, and to 
the class specio-cissima. A high circular tower at 
one end, four stories high, is surmounted by a square 
ditto three stories higher, which seems to have 
grown out of the other, and which is curiously 
flanked at the summit by a pointed turret, stuck on 
apparently by accident. This lofty pile is a grand 
exti avaganza in stone, reaching nearer the moon 



MONYMUSK. 271 

than any modern tower I know, while the main 
body of this edifice abounds in cheerful, airy, well- 
proportioned rooms. The castle wants nothing now 
but good fires, furniture, and inhabitants. 

The park displays abundance of grass, and is 
embellished with middle-aged trees, but has not a 
drop of water to show in the whole landscape, — 
not so much as a canal or a horse pond. Some of 
the ground lies so flat, as almost to defy draining, 
and after great expense incurred to improve the 
soil, Johnston the drainer was brought to inspect it, 
and questioned whether the ground did not now 
look " rather parkish ?" to which he dryly answered, 
" No ! it is rather lakish." 

Next in this world of ancient feudal castles, we 
passed the snug, tidy, quaint-looking old place of 
Monyrausk, better situated than most of the others, 
near the Don. Not far off, we admired the solemnly 
pleasing shades of a fine forest, rather whimsically 
named Paradise. The proprietor of this little for- 
tress unfortunately took the key in his pocket, when 
he went to the Continent, so on our inquiring 
whether it might be seen, a maid, who was sitting 
with closed doors, showed her profile through a 
small crevice, and gave us warning to quit. You 
see, therefore, the proverb is not alwuys true, 
" Chateau qui parle, et femme qui ccoute, va se 
rendrer 



272 MONYMUSK. 

The little village of Monymusk is quite a model 
of neatness, built in the form of a large square, with 
a grass common in the middle, enclosed by a fence 
of rough stakes, and by a luxuriant inner hedge of 
thorn. Here many of the villagers were strolling 
about with a look of cheerful indolent leisure, as if 
they had worked enough for the day, and felt enti- 
tled now to be happy. Nearly all the common 
people in Scotland walk with their hands in their 
pockets, — better certainly than in any other person^s 
— but it gives them an anxious forlorn appearance, 
as if in chase of their last shilling. 

The Prioiy here has been handsome, and still 
preserves some remains of grandeur, though six 
hundred years old. The ancient Saxon arches at 
each end are entire, and look as if they might last 
six hundred years more ; or perhaps as long as the 
earth continues spinning on her axle. 

The small inn-parlour at Monymusk is decorated 
with a little fancy print, which, though the subject 
be melancholy, might make the gravest person 
smile. It represents Prince Leopold and Britannia 
mourning at the tomb of Princess Charlotte — he, 
appropriately costumed in a flowing black tragedy- 
cloak, the very image of a second-rate actor, and 
she, weeping in a rose-coloured dress, yellow body, 
and pink feathers, over an urn, very like the glass 
globe in an apothecary's shop, or as if she were in 



CASTLE FORBES. 273 

the last agonies of sea-sickness. The very lion at 
her feet seems wiping his eyes with his paw, look- 
ing more like a lion in distress than any thing I 
ever witnessed before. 

We passed Pitfichy, a ruin which belonged to 
the family of the well known General Hurry, of 
the Parliamentary army, and Tillyfour, which was, 
I hope, in better repair w^hen Queen Mary inhabited 
it for one night only, and by particular desire. Our 
carriage wheels then turned themselves towards 
Castle Forbes, belonging to the premier Baron of 
Scotland. This is a finely situated modern house, 
exhibiting, of course, a majestic round tower, which 
is quite the newest fashion in building. The oppo- 
site tower is square. Formal and regular plans are 
now quite out, and every thing in the free-and-easy 
style of architecture, with as few of the windows, 
doors, or turrets to match as possible. We admired 
this place exceedingly, and the Castle has a beauti- 
ful effect in the distance, peeping out through a 
mass of wood, about half-way up the bank, as if it 
had stopped in ascending, to take a look of the 
country, and remained stationary to admire it for 
ever. No wonder! The Don flows gracefully 
through a gay panorama of plantations, castles, 
farms, and distant hills, a correct inventory of which 
would fill the rest of my paper. 

You must one day visit the seven tall towers of 



274 KILDRUMMY CASTLE. 

Kildrummy Castle, formerly considered impregnable, 
but which a sparrow now may take possession of. 
They were built by St. Gilbert, in the twelfth cen- 
tury, and all enterprising tourists should positively 
make a digression off the road, to ascend the dark 
ghosty-looking stairs, and to fight many battles over 
again on the spot which once steeped those walls 
in the blood of heroes. Every stone has had its ad- 
ventures; but Kildrummy Castle was finally be- 
trayed to the English army by a blacksmith, bribed 
to this treachery with the promise of as much gold 
as he could carry. In pursuance of his engagement, 
he threw a red-hot bar into the hayloft, which set 
the castle on fire, and during the consequent confu- 
sion, it was taken, but the mercenary traitor suffered 
a frightful punishment from his own recent allies, 
who, detesting his crime, kept their promise in a. 
literal sense, by pouring melted gold down his 
throat ! Our old Scotch proverb truly says, " better 
a little fire that warms, than mickle that burns." 

I am now about to adopt a grand historical tone, 
and to tell you a little more, for even if you know 
my tale already, yet, like Sir Christopher Hutton in 
the Critic, you will be better of hearing it all over 
again. 

Kildrummy Castle, formerly the chief seat of the 
powerful Earls of Mar, always distinguished itself 
greatly in Scottish history. When Robert Bruce 



KILDRUMMY CASTLE. 275 

first asserted his claims to the crown, and met with 
reverses, he lodged his Queen and daughter here, 
under charge of his brother Sir Niel. Being threat- 
ened with a siege, the ladies fled to a sanctuary, 
where they were betrayed by the Earl of Ross ; and 
after a brave defence for some time, they were only 
captured through the treachery of Osborn, an Eng- 
lishman, who blew up the powder magazine. Thus 
the ladies had only saved themselves from Scylla, 
and plunged into Charybdis, or, to use a vulgar 
phrase, they were " out of the frying-pan into the 
fire." By the way, Hume or Ahson would blot 
such an expression out of their pages, and I wish at 
present to be quite upon their model, so try to for- 
get it. 

Kildrummy Castle was again beleaguered in 
1335, when the misfortunes of David Bruce had left 
this kingdom, during three years, in the hands of 
Edward Baliol and his partisans. It held out 
bravely against the Earl of Athol, who being sur- 
prised by a very inferior force, and killed, in the 
forest of Kilblain, the tide of fortune turned, and 
swept away the whole English party from the en- 
tire kingdom of Scotland, which now, as on all oc- 
casions, proved unconquerable. 

A third siege in 1404 is quite romantic, when it 
was assailed by a band of robbers, commanded by 
Alexender Stewart, natural son of the notorious 



276 KILDRUMMY CASTLE. 

character, infamous in our Scottish annals, "The 
Wolf of Badenoch," whose real title was Earl of 
Buchan, being third son of King Robert the Second. 
Though he burned and robbed Elgin Cathedral, ill 
treated his wife, a Countess in her own right, and 
distinguished himself by every species of atrocity, 
yet on his tomb-stone in Dunkeld Cathedral, we find 
him complaisantly stated to be " of good memory !" 
How different wall be the record kept on earth, from 
that which shall be heard at an eternal tribunal ! 

The adventurous young freebooter and his gang 
attacked Kildruramy Castle when it was occupied 
by the hereditary Countess of Mar in her own right, 
then a widow. lie stormed it, gained possession, 
made a mockery of delivering up the keys and pa- 
pers into her own hand at the gate, and finally 
obliged her to declare that she voluntarily took him 
as her husband, for better or worse, — indeed he 
could hardly be worse. The successful adventurer 
now styled himself Earl of Mar, and became, as 
times go, quite a respectable man ! He was ambas- 
sador " extraordinary !" to England, fought in a 
tournament with the Earl of Kent, commanded a 
Scottish army against the Lord of the Isles at Har- 
low, was generalissimo to the Duke of Burgundy in 
support of the Bishop of Liege, and retaining the 
Earldom, though his wife died without children, he 
finally married Lady Duffyl an heiress in Brabant- 



CRAIGIEVAB CASTLE. 277 

We caught, in passing, a distant glimpse of 
Craigievar, a singular old Castle, the lower-half 
being a plain square tower entirely without orna- 
ment, and so narrow, you might suppose it had worn 
a strait-waistcoat, but above it juts out on all sides, 
in a strange, any-how-fashion, with little gable-ends, 
little turrets, and little windows, as if a whole vil- 
lage had scrambled up and clustered on the roof. 
Supreme above all, waved a large showy banner, 
which the post-boy, with an approving nod, pointed 
out, informing me it was " A Reform flag, and had 
never been taken down since the passing of the 
bill !" The ancestor of this family obtained his 
baronetage from King Charles, against whom he 
soon afterwards took arms. In an old ballad of those 
times, describing the death of " Bonny John Seton, 
a baron bold," in memory of whom the family still 
bear on their shield a heart dropping blood, we find 
these lines, showing what mixed motives often dic- 
tate extreme measures: 

"Oh, spoil him, spoil him ! cried Craigievar, 
Him spoiled let me see ; 
For on my word, said Craigievar, 
He bore no good will to me," 

If you have a laudable curiosity to see Macbeth's 

cairn, he was decidedly killed near this, at Lumpha- 

nan, three miles beyond Kincardine O'Neil, and 

though most of the monumental pile was pilfered 

24 



278 CKAIGIEVAR. 

formerly to build cow-sheds and pig styes, yet enough 
still remains to identify the spot. 

As Shakspeare says, " the property of rain is to 
wet;" so, as we were treated in the evening to a 
mixture of showers and wind, with a few scruples 
of Scotch mist, we first attempted a stoppage at the 
Bridge of Alford, but finding only a curtainless, car- 
petless, dingy apartment, pre-occupied by sportsmen 
for fishing, we merely snatched a chop, looked for 
the field where the battle of Alford was fought, and 
where Lord Huntly's eldest son was killed, and then 
proceeded, by the beautiful banks of the Don, to this 
little perfection of a Highland farm-inn at Kincar- 
dine O'Neil, kept by a cordial, hearty old landlady, 
who would have served me up three courses at tea, 
if I had not barricadoed the table against any thing 
more. After bringing up six kinds of tea-bread, 
eggs, and marmalade, she made a desperate attempt 
to force a dish of chops or chickens upon us, but I 
would not hear of so much as a biscuit being added 
to the liberal entertainment, having adopted the 
opinion of an old gentleman, who remarked, that 
supper is " an insult to dinner, and an injury to 
breakfast." 

The landlady presented me next morning with 
a beautiful bouquet, containing all the best flowers 
in her garden, and though none were exotics, the 
good old native wall-flowers and thyme, with their 



CRAIGIEVAR. 279 

fragrant perfume, come back like the familiar friends 
of by-gone days, and revive many "thoughts too 
deep for tears." Who does not remember the period 
when one little enclosure, frilled round with box- 
wood and flaunting with sun-flowers and daffodils, 
gave him more real joy than the gardens at Kew 
could do now if he had them ? and as the simpler 
we can keep our tastes, the more easy they are of 
indulgence, I would not exchange my partiality to 
honeysuckles, violets, and roses, for all the scent- 
less rarities that ever adorned a green-house, direct- 
ing their attractions to the eye and not to the heart. 
It was in honour of our good old landlady, Mrs. 
Gordon, that these very beautiful lines were penned, 
containing an eloquent and deserved panegyric, writ- 
ten with so much taste and feeling, that we have 
scarcely yet decided whether the style resembles 
most that of Moore or Mrs. Hemans, 

. Of all the hostleries so fair, 
Built for the traveller's dwelling, 
On Dee-side, far beyond compare, 

' Kincardine is excelling. 



LOCH-NA-GAR 



Years have roU'd on, Loch-na-gar, since I left you ! 

Years must elapse ere I tread you again, 
Nature of verdure and flow'rs has bereft you, 

Yet still are you dearer than Albion's plain. 

England ! thy beauties are tame and domestic, 
To one who has rov'd on the mountains afar ! 

Oh ! for the crags that are wild and majestic, 
The steep frowning glories of dark Loch-na-gar. 

Byron. 

My dear Cousin, — Here we are, in the scene of 
Lord Byron's early days, where, before " splendour 
had raised, but embittered his lot," he joyously ran 
over the lofty hills, without his hat, and where, 
again to use his own expression, he " clasp'd the 
mountain in his mind's embrace," a stretch of imag- 
ination certainly ! Near the snow-covered summit 
of Morven, he imbibed a taste for those cloud-capped 
mountains, thundering torrents, and pathless forests, 
which owe their subsequent celebrity to his pen, 
and you could not wonder here that Byron became 
a poet, but would be apt rather to wonder that 
every one is not. 

We drove to-day through moors purple with 
heather, and sprinkled with birch, the pyramids of 



LOCH-NA-GAR. 281 

hills growing bolder as we advanced, and the beau- 
tiful Dee dancing beside us most of the time, while 
a magnificent confusion of mountains hemmed us in 
on every side, rock above rock, and one precipice 
looking over the head of another, in endless succes- 
sion, some as bare as a turnpike road, and others 
crowded with trees to their highest pinnacles. 
Here we gained a momentary glimpse of Aboyne 
Castle, covered with a sheet of white-wash, a fine 
feudal-looking edifice, embosomed in fir-trees, and 
rather shy of showing itself. 

The inn at Ballater is charmingly situated at 
one end of a bridge, with the swiftly flowing river 
rushing along at the extremity of a neat little 
flower garden. This was quite a place to spend 
the summer at, instead of merely changing horses 
as we did. Here the sole, engrossing business of 
every body's life seemed to be trout-fishing, and I 
pity every gentleman not fond of that fascinating 
sport, which becomes often an inexhaustible re- 
source to the half-pay world, many of whom occupy 
their whole mornings in angling, and their evenings 
in dressing hooks. I like to see a hat like some 
we passed to-day, stuck over, inside and out, with 
flies, as if a bee-hive had swarmed on it. Many 
ladies in the Highlands wield the rod, though rather 
perhaps out of their element on such an occasion. 
I was amused to hear of a chieftain, accustomed 
24* 



282 LOCH-NA-GAK. 

only to angling, who arrived in a hunting country, 
where a kind neighbour, finding he had never before 
seen this sort of sport, gave him a mount on a 
spirited steed, which, of course, ran off with him, 
but as he flew past his friend at full career, vainly 
trying to hold in the reins, he was heard to exclaim, 
with a true Highland drawl, " I like fishing much 
better !" 

I receive daily lessons against indulging an ex- 
cessive partiality to open carriages, but it seems 
quite incurable. We discovered a most enticing 
little britchska to be hired at Ballator, and, con- 
gratulating myself on such a piece of good fortune, 
I took possession, and proceeded the first three 
miles of our beautiful journey in the most unalloyed 
state of enjoyment, but gradually the mist hung in 
festoons almost down to the road, and at last came 
such a burst of rain that travellers must have been 
drenched before they could raise an umbrella. In 
this bold, romantic scene, it became most tantalizing 
not to know a cloud from a hill, but they must, in- 
deed, at all times be near neighbours on very inti- 
mate terms. 

Besides the gray precipices, hoarse waterfalls, 
towering hills, and inconceivable profusion of birch 
and fir trees, this noble scene displays another beauty 
which you would scarcely anticipate, being quite 
the kingdom of wild roses. We saw thousands by 



LOCH-NA-GAR. * 283 

the road side, — a perfect army of red and white 
roses drawn up in battle array, and scattered all 
around in dazzling abundance. You perhaps fancy 
I mean mere hedges, but there were wild unculti- 
vated fields of them, giving so flushed and full- 
dressed an aspect to the landscape, that the road 
seemed ornamented for a gala, and several branches 
had straggled so far across our path that I could 
almost have plucked them as we drove along. If 
you wish to know^ how a dress of green velvet and 
roses would look, nature certainly wears one here. 
As Bishop Home remarked of a Christian's afflic- 
tions, " every thorn is accompanied by a flower !" 
Sometimes while contrasting the simple delight of 
living in a scene like this with the artificial enjoy- 
ments of a town career, I have thought the differ- 
ence might be aptly illustrated by comparing the 
feelings of a wearied, haggard, and w^orn-out vota- 
ry of dissipation, wdth faded looks and exhausted 
spirits, hurrying home from a ball-room at the 
dawn of day, and meeting the joyous school-boys 
and market girls, fresh from their country homes, 
with buoyant spirits and unimpaired health, untar- 
nished by the heat, glare, and dust which have ac- 
companied unnatural excitement. It is astonishing 
how many prefer gas light to sunshine itself, which, 
like the light of religion, cheers every moment of 
joy, interfering with no pleasure that deserves the 



284 ABERGELCrE CASTLE. 

name, and least of all with our interest and delight 
in contemplating the works of creation and Provi- 
dence. 

Abergeldie Castle, which we passed, is a tall 
white house, like a spectre among the dark moun- 
tains, quite romantically beautiful in situation, and 
properly furnished with bartizans and turrets com- 
plete. Burns wrote a song on the " birks of Aber- 
feldie," but the great original bitches were those of 
this place, which we now admired, and the more 
ancient ballad begins with an invitation which I 
would recommend every one to accept who admires 
a fascinating country, — 

Bonny lassie, will ye go 
To the birks o' Abergeldie"? 

The river Dee flows, broad, deep, and silent, be- 
neath the walls of this old building, and the inhabi- 
tants being obliged to make a circuit of some miles 
for a bridge, have suspended a cradle here, from 
tree to tree, across the rapid stream, in which en- 
terprising travellers may venture a flight on a slack 
rope in the same way as at Noss Head. Here the 
foundation is more secure than that of Shetland, 
where, in default of trees, large poles are merely 
stuck in the ground, but, nevertheless, I was truly 
glad not to be going in that direction, because, after 
engaging to use whatever conveyances the country 



BALMORRAL. 285 

afforded, I should have been bound in honour to 
suspend myself here. The last accident which oc- 
curred on the swing-bridge was when a gamekeeper 
and dogs were emptied into the water, and had to 
swim for their lives ; but a more tragical catastrophe 
took place several years ago. An excise officer 
having fallen in, crowds assembled, eager to rescue 
a fellow-creature in distress, but when the sufferer 
was unluckily recognised, they left him to his fate, 
exclaiming, "It's only the guager !" If a High- 
land jury had been summoned to the inquest, they 
would have been apt to return a verdict like that 
given lately on the trial of a man for violently beat- 
ing his wife. When the jury re-entered, after long 
deliberation, and the judge solemnly asked for their 
decision, it was unanimously delivered in these words, 
" Sarved her right !" 

A bride and bridegroom once, when attempting 
to cross by this fantastic contrivance, on the day of 
their marriage, were precipitated into the rolling 
current, and perished. Such melancholy and unex- 
pected catastrophes bring to my mind sometimes the 
homely remark of a rural preacher, " Death is like 
a cow in a daisy-field, cropping here, and there, and 
everywhere, by turns !" 

We next observed Balmorral, a beautiful place 
of Lord Fife's, who seems fortunate in a tenant, as 
we were told that it has been long occupied for 



286 INVEKCAULD. 

shooting quartei's by a sportsman, who adds a new 
wang or tower to the house ahnost every year, and 
gathers a perfect battu of excellent shots round 
the neighbourhood. K it be any consolation to die 
by noble hands, the whole House of Lords seemed 
in full progress here for the ensuing campaign, 
when the country will be fragrant with gunpowder, 
and resounding with shots. We saw one noble red- 
deer standing by the road side, and staring at us 
while we passed, as if he meant to " take down our 
number." He seemed to have no idea of making 
way for intruders in his native forests, and I am told 
these animals scarcely notice a carriage at any time, 
therefore the best way to shoot them would be to go 
out in one. 

The next place on our muster-roll of houses was 
Invercauld, which has for many centuries belonged 
to the ancestors of Mrs. Farquharson, the present 
chieftainess of that clan. Here magnificent forests 
clamber up the mountain sides, and stately old trees 
enrich the valley, which, surrounded by a ring of 
lofty pinnacles, can be compared to nothing but 
Sinbad's valley of diamonds, to which birds alone 
could find access. You would be quite perplexed 
to imagine how a carriage ever wound its way into 
this beautiful park, or is ever to get out again. 
Loch-na-gar rushes up with a fine sweep towards 
the sky, where it indents the very firmament above. 



INVERCAULD. 287 

The Lion's face is a noble craggy precipice, and 
another mountain opposite the house of Invercauld, 
displays flowers at the base and snow on the sum- 
mit. 

You can dream of nothing comparable to the 
effect by moonlight on Ben-y-bourd and Loch-na- 
gar, looking blacker than night, as if carved in ebony 
or jet, varied by solemn forests of fir, and the dark 
foaming current of the Dee. It was in this romantic 
district that a native, brought from the featureless 
flats of Buchan, was asked what he thought of the 
scenery, when he remarked in a tone of diverting 
perplexity, " Oh ! it's very fine scainery, — ^but its 
a' scainery together ! nothing but scainery ! — feint 
a flea but scainery ! !" 

We enjoyed a charming drive next morning, 
with Mrs. Farquharson, through several miles of 
natural forest, in which every thing appeared wild 
and uncultivated, as if not a human being had ever 
interfered with the course of nature. Aged fir trees 
bristled against the sky, their furrowed gray stems 
looking as old as the mountains they covered, while 
clustered together for miles, their strange fantastic 
arms were thrown out in every curious contortion 
that can be imagined, beneath which, the whole 
ground was embroidered with a wild profusion of 
heather, cranberries, thyme, roses, myrtle, fox-glove, 
and the old original blue bells of Scotland. Who 



288 INVERCAULD. 

could attempt to describe such a scene ! it is impos- 
sible ! the gigantic outline, and the minute finish- 
ing, — the hills of a thousand years, and the blossoms 
of an hour ! all that is majestic, and all that is lovely 
in nature, glowing beneath a flood of sunshine, and 
filling the heart with enraptured gratitude towards 
that Great Being, who, in embellishing our world 
with beauty, has given us one earthly pleasure, in 
which there is no sinful excess, no disappointment, 
and almost a foretaste of that felicity which we look 
for in a still brighter and better world. 

The road, gently undulating up and down the 
mountain side, might have been supposed merely a 
track formed by accident, but in other places it 
whirled round the hills like a corkscrew. We drove 
in a light open carriage, drawn by spirited young 
horses, which, in any other circumstances, would 
have engrossed my most anxious attention, but such 
was the elevating effect of this sublime scene, that 
I actually forgot to be frightened ! The proud 
Lord Abercorn, used to drive his thorough-bred 
horses over hill and dale, with no other reins than 
blue ribbons, the trappings he delighted in for him- 
self, but having tried the experiment once too often, 
they ran off, when he leaped out and broke both 
his legs. 

These roads through the tangled forests were 
made by a regiment formerly quartered in the old 



INA^ERCAULD. 289 

Castle of Braemar, a square tower ornamenting the 
park of Invercauld, which once belonged to the 
Earls of Mar. Colonel Farquharson, seeing those 
soldiers falUng into idle habits, like a second Mar- 
shal Wade, employed them in cutting and carving 
their way over the mountains, to so great an extent , 
that it would occupy many days now, to drive over 
all the highways and by\\^ays they formed. One 
very rare species of tree was pointed out during our 
drive, " The gallows tree," on which the chief of the 
clan Farquharson, without thinking it necessary to 
consult any jury, exercised the privilege of suspend- 
ing his retainers when disobedient. We abandoned 
tlie carriage at one impossible ascent, and scrambled 
up to admire the stream of the Garrawalt, faUing n 
a loud, roaring cascade, which foamed and tumbled 
impetuously onwards. It was surmounted by a 
singularly elegant rustic bridge of rough stakes, so 
very light and insecure looking, that some visitei-s 
race across on tiptoe, expecting it to snap in two. 
The distant effect is charming. 

In a tasteful and elegant moss-house, where we 
sat down to relieve our feelings by a cannonade of 
exclamations, while admiring the tormented river 
tumbling passionately about on its rocky bed, and 
then passing away, like the course of time, our at- 
tention was called off by observing that the whole 
roof and sides of this retreat had been grotesquely 
25 



290 MAR LODGE. 

disfigured by a party of strangers from Aberdeen, 
who arrived there in the morning, and who had 
most ungraciously occupied their time in spoihng 
this romantic seat, by strongly fastening up with 
wires tickets exhibiting their own insignificant 
names, which had probably never appeared else- 
where, except on a shop-board. 

To-day I got my first glimpse of Mar Lodge. 
Its best friends cannot call the house a beauty, being 
rather of the cotton-mill school, but as Cinderella's 
sisters observed of their ugly dresses, " to make up 
for that," all around is magnificent. The situation 
is not only superb for natural beauty, but also for 
affording every variety of sport. The newspapers 
resound each successive season with a list of killed 
and wounded at Mar Lodge. Among grouse, red- 
deer, trout, salmon, and every living creature that 
has the misfortune to be called game, or that it is 
any pleasure to kill, I suppose more deaths take 
place here annually, than in any other corner of the 
known world. Even the trees at Mar Lodge are 
slaughtered on a great scale ! The better half of 
this venerable forest, once the ornament of Scotland, 
now lies prostrate in the dust. The saw-mill has 
done its work, and a few hundreds only remain to 
tell of the thousands that are no more. 

As a colony of trouts in the Bruar once employed 
Burns to write a poetical complaint of wanting 



LYNN OF DEE. 291 

shade, the fish in the Dee should engage Campbell 
or Wilson, the only living poets of Scotland now, 
to assist them with a few verses. It is curious to 
observe how very much poetry has gone out ; and 
we shall soon have nothing left but the embers, 
unless a little fresh fuel be put to the imaginations 
of the rising generation. 

At the celebrated Lynn of Dee, this capricious, 
frolicsome stream is imprisoned within a contracted 
chasm of rock, and rushes out like splintered light- 
ning, dashing with an impetuous violence, the thun- 
dering sound of which can be heard neai'ly a«mile 
off. This need scarcely be wondered at, when we 
see a broad river decanted through a narrow neck 
of solid stone, which so nearly meets over the top, 
that many fool-hardy people have leaped across. 
When driving towards the Lynn, I had observed, 
for about two miles, a ragged boy racing at full 
speed after the carriage; and at this moment he 
hastily descended towards the gorge, with an evi- 
dent intention to exhibit before us, by taking this 
desperate leap. We most peremptorily summoned 
the little urchin back, at which he seemed consider- 
ably astonished, having been accustomed to receive 
a premium, rather than a reprimand, from tourists, 
for risking life and limb, to afford them diversion, 
but I would have given him double price to be sta- 
tionary. 



292 LYNN OF DEE. 

The first chief of the clan Farquharson was 
drowned here ; and no one seeing the frightful pool, 
supposed by the country people to be bottomless, 
could fancy that a bone of his body remained un- 
broken. A poor man last month, who succeeded in 
springing over, missed his aim in attempting to 
return, and fell back into the foaming caldron ! 
Now, what do you think was the consequence 7 
'•' Drowned of course !" No ! by a sort of miracle, 
he was washed on to a rock perfectly unhurt, and 
lives to tell the tale himself. 

^ast, not least, Lord Byron very nearly died 
here in a manner worthy of his poetical taste. 
Some heather having tripped up his lame foot, he 
rolled helplessly down towards the precipice, but on 
the very brink of destruction, he was preserved by 
an attendant, who with difficulty saved his life — 
that life, a scene of so much fiery passion and intense 
agony, that he could scarcely afterwards rejoice at 
its having been prolonged. The world's loud 
plaudits could not drown the still small voice of an 
inward monitor, the witness for God in every mortal 
mind, reminding us that nothing on this earth can 
suffice for happiness ; and the more intellect or sen- 
sibility frail man may be gifted with, the more 
empty, vain, and disappointing to his never-dying 
spirit will appear the vanishing pleasures of time. 
That the solemn and unspeakable importance of 



LYNN OF DEE. 293 

Christianity was at one period impressed on the 
mind of Lord Byron himself, may be hoped, from 
reading the well-known lines inscribed on his own 
Bible : 

Withia this awful volume lies 
The mystery of mysteries. 
Happiest they of human race, 
To whom their God has given grace, 
To read, to fear, to hope, to pray, 
To lift the latch, to force the way ; 
And better had they ne'er been born, 
Than read to doubt — or read to scorn. 



25* 



BLAIRGOWRIE 



Panting time toils after us in vain. 

JOHNSOK. 

My dear Cousin, — Wherever travellers are 
going, if there be a particularly bad road, narrow 
and hilly, without parapets, bridges, or inns, you 
may feel certain that for some insuperable reason, 
they ought to prefer it, and accordingly, though we 
were recommended for comfort to proceed from 
Invercauld by the Blairgowrie road, I exceedingly 
washed to have gone up Glen Tilt, that we might 
see how dreary and wild the world would have 
been without inhabitants. There the long desolate 
ridges of Scarsochare 35000 feet high, the hill of 
Ben-na-muich-duidh has a name all but unpro- 
nounceable, and the forest of Dalmore is noted as 
producing the finest natural pine trees in Europe, 
both in respect to their size, and the quality of the 
timber. Some of these trees measure from eighty to" 
ninety feet in height, without a lateral branch, their 
diameter at the base being four feet and a half, but 
in spite of all these attractions, and fifty more be- 
sides, we submitted to advice, and plodded on 
towards Blairgowrie. 



CRAIGHALL, 295 

My miseries began with a ford across the Dee, 
which had been for several days before impassable, 
but the post-boy from Castleton of Braemar pro- 
tested we might venture through, so I closed my 
eyes to avoid being frightened, and could not but 
remember at that moment, the not very consoling 
advice of a servant once in similar circumstances, to 
his master, " If it comes to the worst. Sir ! hold 
down your head, and drown as fast as possible !" 

There was once upon a time a public-spirited 
Lord Breadalbane, who erected thirty-two stone 
bridges, and if any one ever proposes a monument 
to his memory, my subscription, after this day's ex- 
perience, shall be doubled. Bridges are certainly 
most convenient things, but those along this road 
are so singularly narrow, that you might fancy the 
carriage wheels had been exactly measured, so as to 
graze the parapet on both sides. I must attend, 
however, to the grateful old proverb, " Let every 
one praise the bridge he goes over." 

The Spittal of Glen Shea, — or rather the Hos- 
pital, as it used to be called, was our first stage, and 
after having driven through a wild looking desert, 
we here found a green expanse of excellent pasture, 
with something that called itself an inn, where a 
covey of Irish sportsmen armually assemble for the 
shooting season, and occupy the best rooms. It is 
surprising that gentlemen do not oftener pitch a 



296 BLAIRGOWRIE. 

tent upon the moors, which would be attended with 
the most romantic degree of discomfort. A party 
came to Scotland some years ago in this Arab fash- 
ion, and they brought, moreover, a long narrow 
carriage, which could be metamorphosed occasion- 
ally into a boat. Thus they lived, according to the 
beau-ideal of Lord Byron, " My tent on shore, my 
galley on the sea." 

Craighall showed itself for a few moments as 
we passed, a romantic old castle, which had once 
the honour of being besieged by an Earl of Athol, 
who had married a daughter of the Rattray family, 
and intended, by killing all the male representatives 
of that house, to bring in his wife as the heiress, but 
he had no more success than he deserved, as the 
gentlemen proved " too many for him." 

After pausing at the gay pretty town of Blair- 
gowrie, we skirted along a complete chain of small 
lakes — or lakelets — not very illustrious for beauty. 
In the loch of Clunie, almost rising out of the 
water, stands an old castle, scarcely deserving a 
second glance, till you hear that it claims the hon- 
our to have been the birth-place of the Admirable 
Crichton, the wonder of his age, and of every sub- 
sequent age besides. I sometimes wish a scale 
could be invented for measuring the extent and 
depth of men's attainments — not as they seem to 
others, or are estimated by themselves, but according 



DUNKELD CATHEDRAL. 297 

to the real weight of metal they carry. How grand 
and unexpected the sum total would appear m some 
cases, and how marvellously others, who fill up a 
large space in the public eye, would shrink to an 
atom ; but such a genius as the Admirable Crichton, 
would then, perhaps, be found to outweigh a whole 
college. 

We drove at length through the lofty barriers 
of the King's Pass, which forms a grand entrance to 
Dunkeld, and arrived to dinner at Grant's very 
beautifully situated inn, near one end of the bridge, 
where the broad, deep, majestic Tay floats beneath 
the windows, clear as the glass through which we 
were gazing at it. I cannot but wonder that any 
traveller can ever tear himself away from this en- 
chanting neighbourhood in less than a month, he 
must find so much to enjoy in strolling through the 
Duke's magnificent grounds, where the thing per- 
haps most to be admired of all, is the liberality with 
which they are thrown open, so that any tourist 
may feel here, as if he had suddenly succeeded to a 
large estate of his own, and were come to enjoy it. 

The old Cathedral of Dunkeld, founded by Rob-, 
ert Bruce's protege Bishop Sinclair, five hundred 
years ago, stands within the grounds, and is consid- 
ered quite an architectural gem, being a curious 
omnium gather' em of various styles, forming a beau- 
tiful whole, though sketchers and engravers have 



298 DUNKELD CATHEDRAL. 

made sad havoc of its graceful Saxon and Norman 
arches. Most of the building is a mere shell, but 
we attended Divine service in the choir, which is 
yet in its premier jetmesse, on Sunday, and observed 
a handsome marble tablet, raised by the congrega- 
tion in testimony of heartfelt and unanimous regret 
for the death of their pious and beloved clergyman, 
Mr. Robb, drowned on board the Forfarshire steam- 
vessel, some months ago. In reading their expres- 
sions of deep lamentation, I could not but remember 
that this excellent man, when presented to the 
Church two years ago, encountered a universal veto, 
and the very doors were barricadoed against him, 
by the identical persons now so entirely conciliated 
by his extraordinary zeal and ability. The patron 
has since presented this living to Mr. Mackenzie, 
who at once rendered himself acceptable to the 
whole parish, and it is confidently anticipated, that 
patronage will again be honoured in its protege. 

None of the parishioners attempted a veto on 
this occasion, with or without rendering a reason, 
and I hope it may be long before here or elsewhere, 
it shall become a sufficient cause for rejecting a 
clergyman, to repeat those well-known lines, which 
used, at one time, to be reckoned rather ridiculous j 

I do not like thee, Dr. Fell, 
The reason why 1 cannot tell ; 
But I do not like thee, Dr. Fell. 



DUNKELD. 299 

A very fine statue, representing the late Duke 
of Atholl, stands in the chancel of this cathedral, 
dressed in his robes of state, and extremely like, 
though merely copied from a small portrait of Land- 
seer's, by an artist who never saw his Grace. Close 
beside it, we perceived a very handsome monument 
to the Marquis of Atholl, emblazoned with the quar- 
terings of his many great connections, and few fam- 
ilies ever had more to boast of, as they were once 
related to every crowned head in Europe, except 
the Grand Signior. 

The climate here must be tolerably healthy, as 
there used to be at Dunkeld " an eighty-four club," 
no member being eligible till he attained that age. 
The late Duke used to say, that when young he 
made walks, and when old he made rides over the 
hills of Dunkeld, and both have now been most 
effectually done, as the greatest pedestrian might 
fatigue himself here, perambulating over the eighty 
miles of gravel walks and drives ! It must require 
a Bank of England revenue to keep the place in 
such admirable order ! I scarcely knew how to 
stop my peregrinations, for every turn of the way 
disclosed some new and incomparable beauty in the 
landscape. My feeling was like yours when inter- 
ested in some very engrossing novel, every page 
rendering it more impossible to leave off. Mile 
after mile leads you on to more fascinating scenes, 



300 DUNKELD. 

and every step discovers something not anticipated 
before. In one day the wearied guide led us, at a 
sort of race-horse pace, to Ossian's Hall, and we 
climbed successively to the summit of Craig Vinian 
and Craigybarns, yet I felt as if we had done 
nothing ! Like Lord Chatham, we " trampled on 
impossibilities," and after walking sixteen miles up 
and down hill, I could have begun it all over again 
with pleasure, if the daylight had only been pro- 
longed. 

The grounds of Dunkeld are supposed to exhibit 
nearly the most beautiful specimen of landscape gar- 
dening in Europe, being as well wooded and highly 
dressed as any in England, with the advantage of a 
broad rapid torrent like the Tay glittering among 
the forests, and the towering rocks and mountains 
adding grandeur and dignity to their singular beauty. 
A curious contrast may be remarked between the 
wild untameable magnificence of His Grace's more 
Highland residence at Blair, and the rich verdant 
fertility of Dunkeld. No expense was spared to 
embellish both ; and as long as we have national 
vanity or national taste, all Scotland must gratefully 
remember, that those scenes were adorned, not for 
himself alone, but for the use and enjoyment of all 
who possessed eyes to admire them. Many a de- 
lightful hour has been spent in the groves and gar- 
dens of Dunkeld, by strangers of all classes, and 



DUNKELD. 301 

of all nations, welcomed as if they had been the 
Duke's own relatives ; and it is, indeed, a privilege 
to ramble at large among the secluded walks, the 
gigantic trees, the flowers, the arbours, the river's 
banks, and though last, not least, the hills covered 
to their summits with larch. That was well known 
to be the Duke's favourite tree, of which he planted 
twenty thousand acres ; and a Perthshire gentleman 
once remarked, that though the county could not 
boast of an Arch-Duke, they had at any rate a Larch- 
Duke. When Wilkes came to this neighbourhood 
he protested that " the greatest vagary of Shak- 
speare's fancy was, to imagine a wood on Birnham 
Hill, where there never was a shrub." Certainly 
when the trees marched to Dunsinane they were 
very long of returning, as that mountain used to 
stand conspicuously bare among its wooded neigh- 
bours, like a great hay-stack in a garden, but the 
taste of the late Sir John Stewart of Murthly has 
enriched the scene by covering it with thriving 
plantations. 

Last time we were here, A had the amuse- 
ment of lionizing the present Duke of Orleans all 
over these grounds, after which we dined in his 
company with the Duke of Atholl, who made a 
speech to his royal guest, saying he had formerly 
raised five hundred men to make war on foreign 
enemies, but he was now employing an equal num- 
26 



302 DUNKELD. 

ber in preparing a residence, where, if he did not 
live to practise hospitality himself, he trusted it 
would be done by those who came after him. He 
finished by proposing the health and prosperity of 
Charles the Tenth, who had visited him at Blair 
during banishment from France, when the last 
words he said to the royal prince at taking leave 
were, " The kindest wish I can offer your Highness 
is, that I may never see you here again." 

The employment afforded to his tenantry by the 
Duke of Atholl, became a source of so much opu- 
lence and comfort to all around him, that his death 
was felt as a family misfortune in every cottage on 
his wide domains. Five hundred men were em- 
ployed till the hour of his decease, in building that 
palace of almost royal splendour, which will prob- 
ably never now be finished. When the news 
arrived of his Grace's demise, a mournful dispersion 
of the work people instantly took place, and from 
that hour not a stroke has been heard among the 
deserted walls. A more strange and melancholy 
spectacle than it now presents, you can scarcely 
imagine. It is not a ruin ! it is not a house ! all 
seems fresh, new, and magnificent, yet in the sur- 
rounding desolation, you feel conscious that some 
great calamity has occurred, and speak almost in 
whispers, while pointing to the splendid arches, 
windows, and doors, some of which have been tern- 



DUNKELD. 303 

poraiily closed In for protection, — the half-chiselled 
stones, the bare red bricks, and the workmen's sheds 
surrounded by long grass and weeds, which grow 
all untrodden in the deep solitude and silence of this 
death-like scene. 

The Duke, during his life, caused a small glass 
pavilion, like a lantern, to be erected near the new 
palace, in which he sat for hours every day, watch- 
ing the growth of this noble pile ; and having 
taken an English stranger once there, he laughed 
at his guest's long reach of imagination, who ex- 
claimed, on beholding what looked Idee the founda- 
tions of a city, " This will be a noble ruin hereafter!" 
Little did his Grace or the admiring visiter then 
foresee how nearly that hour was at hand, when the 
rain and the wind would beat unheeded through 
these roofless untenanted apartments ! A few short 
months would have completed this promising young 
palace, now so prematurely cut off. Two floors are 
nearly finished, as well as a gallery ninety-six feet 
long, besides an elegant private chapel, a spacious 
staircase, and several noble gothic windows, which 
were to have been emblazoned with all the family 
shields and quarterings, carved in stone. 

We were shown a miniature model which cost 
<£500, of the whole edifice. Will any future Ala- 
din arise to accomplish the whole of this superb plan ? 
If so, the power of stone and lime could no further go ! 



304 DUNKELD. 

We traced real genius in the bold variety, as well 
as in the graceful arrangement of the whole out- 
line, and I must say, that the architect, Mr. Hopper, 
may go proudly down to posterity, carrying, as evi- 
dences of his taste, Penorhn Castle in one hand, and 
Dunkeld Palace in the other ! What profession in 
the world can compare to that of an architect for 
leaving permanent memorials behind ! Sir Chris- 
topher Wren will need no monument as long as St 
Paul's keeps its place ; a marble tablet could adc! 
little to the celebrity of Inigo Jones ; and who can 
ever forget Sir William Adams, while the barracks 
on Edinburgh Castle continue to be frightful ? 

It is a singular coincidence in this neighbourhood, 
that the twin-houses of Murthly and Dunkeld, which 
were in progress at the same time, have both lost 
their founders, and remained ever since desolate and 
forlorn, though Murthly, with its towers crowned by 
glittering weather-co cks, and its temporary windows 
of painted wood, puts a much more cheerful face 
upon the matter than this extensive young ruin. We 
daily experienced how wise and merciful an appoint- 
ment it is, that no one can tell the year or the hour 
when his labours on earth shall for ever cease. All 
exertion would-at once be paralyzed in such a case, 
and it requires energy of mind certainly in those who 
cannot reckon on a day, to begin what must occupy 
years to complete. " Man proposes and God dis- 



KILLIECRANKIE. 305 

poses ;" but we seem best to fulfil the intentions of 
Providence, when each individual continues active 
and diligent in his own vocation ; and few have left 
greater memorials behind them than the late Duke 
of Atholl, whose forests, bridges, roads, and houses, 
while they ornamented his estate, spread industry 
and cheerfulness, where formerly there had been 
idleness and want, A great political economist has 
discovered that the prosperity of a country depends 
on every man exerting himself in the utmost degree 
to promote his own interest, and while the Duke 
metamorphosed his own barren heaths into fruitful 
fields, he also changed an indolent peasantry into 
active, diligent, and happy labourers. 

The attachment his Grace inspired was such, 
that the Highlanders would admit nothing that they 
thought to his prejudice, and when a stranger for- 
merly asked one of the Duke of AthoU's foresters, 
if his master spoke Gaelic, the man, having recently 
returned from attending his Grace in a shooting ex- 
cursion to the hill of Keichnacaapex, confidently 
replied, " Och, yes ! the Duke speaks Gaelic fine ! 
'Twas only t'other day, when I was following him 
to the hills, his Grace turned round to me, and 
pointed with his finger, saying, ' Keichnacaapex, 
Donald /' Och, yes ! he speaks Gaelic fine !" 

The weather was as beautiful as the scenery, 
when we drove next morning towards the noble 
26* 



306 KILLIECRANKIE. 

hills and castle of Blair-Athol, along miles of 
aged ash trees, oaks, and beeches, admiring and 
criticising a rapid succession of beautiful seats, and, 
to sum up all, threading through the very essence 
of Highland beaut}', the pass ofKilliecrankie, which 
every individual should see, who has an eye in his 
head. The landscape is so enchanting, I *could 
scarcely believe my eyes when I looked at it. How 
many of our countrymen once expired on this battle- 
field ! and it might almost add a pang to death itself, 
when the eye gazed its last on scenes so bright and 
attractive. The rapid Garry roaring fiercely along 
its rocky bed, the cultivated fields, the wooded hills, 
the towering mountains, the gay little gardens, and 
the regiment of villas, are beautiful enough to make 
one dream for a moment, in spite of precept and ex- 
perience, that there might be such a thing on earth 
as perfect happiness. In the most romantic part of 
this magnificent glen stands an old gray stone, 
raised in memory of " The bloody Claverhouse," as 
one party name him, and " The bold Dundee," as 
others insist he should be called, who died here, 
like Nelson, in the moment of victory, both con- 
quering and conquered. It was an amusing scene 
which took place once, when a very aged Lady 
Elphinstone being introduced to Claverhouse, he 
politely remarked to her, " You must have seen many 
interesting things in your day, Madam ?" To which 



LUDE. 307 

she drily answered, " 'Deed no, Sir, except when I 
was young, that we had one Knox deaving us wi' 
his davers, and now w^e have a Clavers deavinsf us 
wi' his knocks !" 

In the most romantic part of our drive, we met 
an elegant young lady, in a riding habit, hat and 
green veil, mounted — no ! not on horseback, but on 
the top of the mail ! clinging to the coach-box, and 
gazing about, evidently in so fine a frenzy of delight 
that, could poetry possibly be inspired on the top of 
a coach, she had certainly found a rhyme, — at least 
if there be one in the world, — for Killiecrankie. 

Among the fine plantations at Lude, an elegant 
new house is rapidly growing up a la Burn, which 
promises to be a very successful hit. The spacious 
windows command a superb view of the Garry for 
several miles, and of many rugged hills, with totally 
unspellable names. Here Mr. M'Inroy showed us 
the finest bowling-green I ever beheld, on which the 
lovers of bowls and other "gymnastic exercises" 
may amuse themselves. Games out of doore seem 
so wholesome and exhilirating, that the old grow 
young, and the young forget to grow old when 
practising them. Active habits prolong the enjoy- 
ment of boyish spirits, long after a man of mere 
clubs and newspapers has subsided into his fire-side 
arm-chair, as a fixture for life, and every man who 
wishes w^ell to himself, should cultivate a taste for 



308 LUDE. 

whatever energetic amusement takes him off the 
hearth-rug. A clergyman in the Highlands lately 
objected so strongly to a cricket-ground being es- 
tablished in his parish, that the party of gentlemen 
who had begun the plan relinquished it, but if more 
innocent recreatious were encouraged for all classes 
in Scotland, there would probably be fewer vices. 
It is amazing how creditably some persons get 
through their lives, without exertion of any kind, 
by rising late, dozing in the evening, and lounging 
all day, actually doing nothing ; but the very es- 
sence of health and usefulness is found in the activity 
M'ith which we devote a due portion of time to all 
things that can lawfully occupy it, not allowing re- 
laxation to interfere with business, and least of all 
with religion, but making it consistent with the rest 
which our minds require for entering on the duties 
of both. 

The late proprietor of Lude, General Robertson, 
who waged incessant legal warfare against the late 
Duke of Atholl, was particularly annoyed at his 
Grace for claiming a right to hunt deer over all this 
estate. When Prince Leopold visited at the Castle 
of Blair, the Duke gave his vassal warning that he 
intended next day to exercise his privilege for the 
entertainment of his royal guest. Accordingly the 
deer were driven down, and every thing promised a 
delightful day's sport, when, under pretence of doing 



CASTLE BLAIR. 309 

all honour to the illustrious stranger, the General 
fired off a grand salute, which scattered the herd to 
the farthest limit of the forest. 

The massive old Castle of Blair, the ancient 
fortalice of the Earldom of Atholl, has seen its best 
days, having been dismantled in 1745 by order of 
government, when the towers, pinnacles, and battle- 
ments were thrown down, and the elevation, which 
was seven stories high, became lowered to four, 
having been literally beheaded. Such was the 
thickness of these venerable walls, and the adhesive- 
ness of the cement, that this barbarous act could only 
be perpetrated by successive explosions of gunpow- 
der, but every thing that makes a castle ornamental 
was perseveringly destroyed. The first sensation of 
tourists on beholding this once pre-eminent building, 
must now be disappointment, but within, sufficient ac- 
commodation remains for the exercise of princely hos- 
pitality, and one of the apartments is embellished by 
a peculiarly handsome ornamented ceiling. 

In "the '15," the only date remembered here 
except the " '45," the Duke of Atholl took the safe 
side, while his heir apparent, the Marquis of Tulli- 
bardine, zealously engaged himself with the opposite 
party, and joined the Earl of Mar. Having been 
attainted, he took refuge in France, and his politic 
father got an act of parliament to disinherit him, 
securinir the estate and title to the next brother. 



310 CASTLE BLAIR. 

The Marquis, now rendered desperate, became so 
eager in the cause, that four years afterwards he 
joined the Spanish inrasion, when, being defeated 
at Glensheil, a high price was offered for his head, 
but he escaped. A third time, in '45, he joined in 
that attempt which ended so calamitously for him, 
but so happily for us protestants, long life to us ! 
The Marquis made his escape from CuUoden, but 
his horse failing, he surrendered in broken health 
and spirits, was imprisoned in the Tower during 
the rest of his unlucky days, and died in less than a 
month. Who does not feel for so spirited and heroic 
a nobleman, who, from a mistaken sense of duty, 
forfeited his birthright as Duke of Atholl in Scot- 
land, Sovereign Lord of Man, and Lord Strange in 
England ! When the Castle of Blair became, during 
his life, the property of his junior brother the Duke, 
it was attacked by a still younger brother. Lord 
George Murray, but withstood the siege successfully. 
The fortifications were again proved invulnerable 
during the celebrated defence of them, made with a 
mere handful of men, by Sir Andrew Agnew ; but 
it was at last finally, as we have seen, cashiered, 
broke, disarmed, and dismissed His Majesty's ser- 
vice. 

The lucky Duke who had superseded his elder 
brother, acquired also, in a somewhat questionable 
way, the estate of his cousin Lord Nairn, who be- 



CASTLE BLAIR. 311 

came ruined in the Stuart cause. A general under- 
standing prevailed in those days, that when a for- 
feited estate was put up to auction, a friend ought to 
bid for the proprietor, and no rival should compete, 
that it might thus be restored literally for an old 
song. The Duke, as head of the family, stood osten- 
sibly forward, got the property knocked down to 
himself for a trifle, and having a good notion what 
a bargain means, either made no previous agree- 
ment with Lord Nairn, or did not find his cousin's 
money forthcoming, so, one w^ay or other, Strath- 
aird, near Perth, has remained stationary with the 
Dukes of AthoU ever since, and is hkely to con- 
tinue so. 

Lord George Murray, whom I already men- 
tioned, was forfeited for the Glensheil affair, but par- 
doned, and afterwards perseveringly joined in the 
attempt of '45, when he became Prince Charles's 
Lieutenant-General. He was again attainted, but 
dying before his brother the Duke, his son's claim, 
as heir to the uncle, was ingeniously carried through 
the House of Lords, by means of the great Lord 
Mansfield ; and having married his uncle's only 
daughter, "the Lady of Man and Baroness Strange," 
their son became the late Duke, of honourable mem- 
ory. You will think I have torn a leaf out of 
Burke or Debrett this morning, but I do like to un- 
ravel and wind up the long line of an ancient fam* 



312 CASTLE BLAIR. 

ily, especially when standing on the spot which has 

been commemorated by their deeds from age to age. 

In case the Herald King at Arms should become 

jealous of my poaching on his manor, I shall now 

conclude, however by referring you to the History 

of Scotland, where " for further particulars inquire 

within." 

The editor of a fashionable magazine having 

said, when reviewing a lady's book lately, that he 
could not help falhng asleep over it, was surprised 
to receive, some days afterwards, an elegant night- 
cap, with her best regards, and I might as well en- 
close one to you now, in case of accidents, as this 
last epistle is rather a heavy article, and may prove 
equally somniferous. 



LOGIE RAIT. 

I won't describe — description is my forte ; 

But ev'ry fool describes in these bright days. Byron 

My dear Cousin, — This letter is begun inside the 
trunk of an ash tree at Logic Rait, measuring fifty- 
three feet in circumference, and here I should like 
to imprison for life all travellers who deny that 
Scotland can produce fine timber. Another of 
nearly equal magnitude stands on the opposite side 
of a broad river, and A is at this moment boat- 
ing across to do homage at its shrine, while a dis- 
tant glimpse quite satisfies my enthusiasm. I would 
not wish to be censorious on other countries, or 
very partial to my own, but the ash trees at Rich- 
mond might be placed in a flower-pot beside these ! 

The road from Blair in this direction, crossing at 
the Bridge of Pitlochry, is as up and down, as narrow, 
and as totally without parapets, as if we were travel- 
ling round the rim of several great mill-wheels, but 
we had a pair of worthy old Dobbins to draw us, and 
it became well worth the fright to see so lovely a 
country, though, if w^e had encountered cart or carri- 
age, w^e should have been like the Highlanders meet- 
ing on a plank, one or the other must have gone over. 

I am weary of admiring! something superla- 
tively ugly would be almost a relief to the eye, but 
27 



314 LOGIE KAIT. 

that is not to be had in Perthshire. Our post-boy 
was remarkably attentive in pointing his whip to- 
wards every object pecuharly deserving of notice, 
and at one place I was about to extemporize a 
very sentimental story for an exceedingly romantic 
and really elegant villa to which he directed our 
notice, when he spoiled all by mentioning that it 
had been bought as the rural retreat of a well- 
known hotel-keeper and coach-proprietor in Edin- 
burgh, who left this neighbourhood when a boy, 
with only half-a-crown in his pocket, and who, by 
persevering industry, gained enough to return here 
as a landed proprietor. He must greatly have 
missed the mail coaches, and did not long survive 
this experiment of rural felicity, the estate having 
descended, on his death, to a nephew. 

Here the hedges of brilliant roses, the rocky 
precipices, and larch-covered hills, form a combina- 
tion of indescribable beauty, varied by a foaming 
stream, which gives life to the whole. After pass- 
ing Logic Rait, however, the country became more 
English, with rich undulating meadows, massy trees, 
corn fields, and a perfectly level road, though en- 
closed within a double range of green hills and ditto 
wooded. We now passed another succession of 
small properties, too thickly studded to be extensive, 
in consequence of which it has been humorously re- 
marked of one place, that the house is as broad as 



. LOGIE RAIT. 315 

the estate. These residences are all chiefly inhab- 
ited by the royal clan of Stewart. When the pres- 
ent Duke of Orleans overheard some Highlanders 
once, in a steam-boat, discussing their different clans, 
he came good-humouredly forward and said, " I am 
of a greater clan than any of you ! I am a Stuart !" 
The historian of the Highland regiments. General 
Stewart, who had concentrated many branches of 
the family in his own person, used sometimes to be 
heard reflecting, in a truly Celtic tone, on the alarm- 
ing diminution of the still numerous clan, saying, 
" There's very few Stewarts in the country now ! 
There's Stewart of Garth ! I'm Stewart of Garth ! 
There's Stewart of Drummacharry ! I'm Stewart 
of Drummacharry ! There's Stewart of Kynnachan ! 
I'm Stewart of Kynnachan ! !" The letters in this 
neighbourhood meet with so odd a reception when 
they arrive, that I do not intend to correspond with 
any of the inhabitants. We observed at Clochfoldie, 
and other places, that a hollow stone, conspicuously 
white-washed, is built into the park wall, contain- 
ing a narrow slit, which serves as a letter-box, and 
the post-man, running along the road, blows a blast 
on his horn and there deposits all the news and 
gossip of the day, in so quiet a receptacle that the 
whole packet may lie dormant for weeks till some 
one has leisure or curiosity to extricate it from this 
cold imprisonment. A similar plan is still adopted 
in the eastern parts of Yorkshire, where I saw last 



316 WEEM. 

year something which resembled a lamp-post, sta- 
tioned on the road-side near every farm-house, car- 
rying a wooden box on the top to receive the family 
despatches. Letters have lost all their rank and 
aristocracy now, by the abolition of franks, which 
also diminishes the importance of a seat in Parlia- 
ment more than you or other sensible people would 
believe. The first thing a new M. P. did formerly, 
was to rehearse the pattern of his frank, how to 
distort his hand-writing so that the signature might 
be sufficiently unreadable, and whether to sign it in 
the north-east corner of his covei*, or in the south- 
west, or to arrange it, as a certain M. P. did, in a 
semi-circle, like the bow of a Cupid. We never 
used to be in company formerly with a Member of 
Parliament at dinner, without a general whisper 
being circulated round the room that an opportunity 
had at last occurred for securing a frank, while he 
had a daily opportunity of conferring favours on 
ten eager applicants, all volubly grateful on behalf 
of themselves and their country correspondents ; 
but Members of Parliament need scarcely learn to 
write now unless they please. 

The \dllage of Weem has become a model of 
cheerfulness and comfort under the active and be- 
nevolent care of Sir Neil Menzies, the proprietor. 
Instead of pursuing those sudden and violent schemes 
of improvement which, even when successful, occa- 
sion much intermediate distress, he has gradually, 



WE EM. 317 

but with admirable effect, encouraged industry, and 
rebuilt by degrees, as the old tenants died or removed, 
every cottage on the estate, now almost unrivalled, 
for its thriving well-ordered aspect, throughout a 
circuit of many miles. We were told that Sir Neil 
enables his tenantry to manufacture the w^hole pro- 
duce of their farms in the neighbourhood, which en- 
sures them a certain market. For this purpose he 
has established two distilleries to consume the grain, 
and besides, to dispose of the wool, a most success- 
fid carpet manufactory, which might put Kidder- 
minster out of countenance. I admired particularly 
one carpet made here, which displayed the colours 
of the Menzies' tartan, the pattern being branches 
of scarlet geranium on a white ground. 

Not a drain or an enclosure seems wanting on this 
vast estate, where the hedges for miles around are like 
walls of leaves, and the cattle appeared of such first- 
rate excellence, that I heard without surprise of their 
having gained the highest prizes in succession at the 
cattle shows of Stirhng, Aberdeen, and Inverness. 

The extreme attachment of the people here to 
their chief, is quite of the old school, and founded 
not merely on ancient associations, but on the daily 
and hourly experience of almost parental liberahty 
and kindness in promoting the interests, and even 
the amusements of old and young, which are en- 
couraged and patronized with unceasing attention 
27* 



318 CASTLE MENZIES. 

to their happiness. Here, too, the sick are person- 
ally visited and assisted with such unsparing zeal, 
that none seem neglected in the wide circuit of this 
very extensive estate. I was particularly interested 
in seeing an old man of ninety-eight, a pensioner 
of the family, who walks daily from the village to 
the castle for work, and seems to think the world 
could scarcely get on without him, and least of all 
the chief's family ; an agreeable delusion in which 
he is allowed to continue, though often there is great 
difficulty in inventing any employment suited to his 
very limited powers. 

Near the venerable old house of Castle Menzies 
grow the finest sycamore trees in Scotland, over- 
shadowing the beautiful park, which is barricadoed 
round with wooded hills and lofty mountains. Close 
behind the castle rises a singularly tall abrupt hill, 
almost a sheer precipice from top to bottom, and 
charmingly varied by trees, which have grappled 
hold of the rocks, and manage, in a way of their 
own, to keep their stations, but you and I would be 
very sorry for ourselves, if we seemed as precariously 
situated as many of them are. 

Near the door of Castle Menzies may be seen 
" The Chieftain's Stone," a large round block of 
granite, weighing more than I venture to guess, 
which the next heir, on succeeding to the supremacy 
of this clan, Avas always expected to carry in his 



CASTLE MENZIES. 319 

arms up stairs to the dining-room, where his health 
was drank. It would be almost as easy to lift the 
house, or to run away with Schihallion at once ; 
but if this achievement would have puzzled Hercu- 
les, there is a Bacchanalian's cup in the Macleod 
family, almost equally defying ordinary power, 
formed to contain a bottle and a half of claret, which 
each successive chief is expected to drain at a 
draught. I think such an achievement would have 
made Bacchus himself become mortal. 

Castle Menzies is one of the few veij large old 
houses in Perthshire, — " Long has it stood — still 
honour'd let it stand." The walls are ten feet thick, 
being proof against the assault of a foe, but always 
open to a friend, as the scenery around is not more 
truly Highland than the welcome within. Some 
centuries ago, the yet more ancient family residence 
stood on a different site, but the clan Menzies hav- 
ing peacefully assembled once in great numbers for 
a christening festivity, the ancestor of Stewart of 
Garth marched down with a host of retainers, be- 
sieged the old fortifications, barricadoed the doors, 
and set fire to the house, on which occasion a hun- 
dred Menzies perished ! Murder was committed in 
those days, both wholesale and retail, particularly 
by smoking, but in many Highland cottages now, 
the inhabitants appear so thoroughly seasoned with 
peat and tobacco, that it would be no easy matter 



320 CASTLE MENZIES. 

to put them out of their usual atmosphere. Many 
old women we saw during our tour, who looked 
themselves like cigars ready to be lighted. 

The new Castle, if it can be called new, was 
built in 1573, by the same architect who reared one 
at Taymouth, since razed to the ground, and it is 
said that these two edifices occupied eleven years in 
building. An elegant modern addition, uniform with 
the old edifice, is now in progress under the eye of 
Burn, who has all the quarries in Scotland at work. 
The windows here exhibit very handsome gabled 
ornaments on the exterior, and within we saw closets 
cut in the thickness of the wall, quite a la Mrs. 
Radcliffe. After the family papers had narrowly 
escaped the fire and ravages consequent on Garth's 
attack, they were deposited here in a safe, like that 
of a bank, or more like a square stone wall, entered 
by a trap door from above, and inaccessible to fire, 
air, earth, or water — as secure, in short, as the man- 
uscripts of Pompeii. 

In the sitting-room here, the embrasures of the 
windows are so deep, that with a curtain let down, 
they form a comfortable and commodious apartment, 
so cheerful and bright sometimes, I could fancy my- 
self living in the sun itself, though, perhaps, the 
cheerful society within adds a beam or two of viva- 
city to those venerable walls. It is astonishing in 
so antique a Highland residence to hear nothing of 



GLENLYON. 321 

a ghost ; Mr. Burn should certainly be requested to 

supply the deficiency by building a haunted room, 

Where the curtains will shake of their own accord, 
And the raven croak at the window board. 

Near one extremity of the park at Castle Men- 
zies, the Tay and the Lyon meet in a scene of such 
marvellous beauty, that I sat down for half-an hour 
to be in ecstasies, and to pity at my leisure all those 
who live elsewhere. Through a long range of richly 
cultivated meadows, these two broad rivers rush 
violently into each other's arms, and the mountains 
are all gathered round to witness the scene. One 
tall peak of Schihallion had caught a side glimpse 
of sunshine, which lighted up its usually frowning 
aspect, and the waving forests on every neighbour- 
ing hill were tipped with golden light. 

We drove seven miles through the narrow 
mountainous vale of Glenlyon, an exqiusite specimen 
of Highland beauty, being enlivened by the sparkling 
river, and hemmed in by hills glowing with heather. 
It might have made a schoolboy tremble to see how 
the birches were waving over our heads ; and here 
the mountains are so lofty that villages lying at their 
base are three or four months every year without 
seeing the sun. The river Lyon, which now looked 
like a flood of light, once ran red with the blood of 
the slaughtered Macgregors, when, after a fierce con- 
flict, the conquerors washed their swords in the stream. 

Not a feature in this landscape could be altered 



322 GLENLYOX. 

without injury, and a painter might advantageously 
spend his whole life in taking views, every one of 
which would appear completely different. In some 
places you seem to have discovered an unknown 
world, never trod by human footstep, then comes an 
old ruin, hiding its decay in wreaths of ivy and roses, 
next appears a smiling village, afterwards a long 
colonnade of superb plane or ash trees, then a thriv- 
ing farm, here and there a church; and the old 
burying-ground at Fortingal, is particularly interest- 
ing. Go where you will, " we cannot leave the 
footsteps of the dead," and I often think how strange 
it is to consider, that for several thousand years, hun- 
dreds of men have died every day, and hundreds are 
as regularly born to succeed them. It has been a 
long and ceaseless procession for centuries, from the 
cradle to the grave, in which year after year new 
actors appear and vanish ; but our turn to walk for 
a time along the busy scenes of life has now come, 
and then, like the millions who have preceded us, 
we shall plunge into the gulf of eternity, making 
way for those in rapid succession who follow. 
None can stay his own progress — none can choose 
when he shall be summoned upon the stage of life, 
or torn away from its fleeting scenes ; but the Chris- 
tian need fear no evil, as there is prepared for us a 
holy garment to wear during our progress, the robe 
of our Saviour's righteousness, sheltered in which we 
may safely and peacefully pass from the vicissitudes 



GLENLYON. 323 

of time, into the glorious mansions of eternity. His 
followers and disciples may confidently go forward 
to join the many who have preceded them into the 
regions of glory, and there wait for the many who 
shall yet be called to join the heavenly host in their 
songs of everlasting joy and praise. 

In this church-yard many ancient graves were 
overshadowed once by the largest yew tree ever 
known, which could have furnished bows for her 
Majesty's whole body-guard of archers. It measured 
fifty-six feet round, and, until lately, carriages at- 
tending a funeral used to drive through the hollow 
trunk. There only remains now one little monu- 
ment of its existence, in the shape of a small stunted 
fragment, not larger than a tombstone. Seeing this 
forlorn leafless relic, one might be apt to forget that 
it ever was young and flourishing, as children who 
behold the aged survivors of a past generation, 
look upon them often with a sort of contemptuous 
pity, and fancy they are made only for decay and 
death. There are three distinct stages which we 
must expect to experience in the attachment of those 
around us. The fond and partial affection of our 
parents in childhood, is exchanged in after life for 
the companionship and confidence of cotemporaries, 
but when these early associates are swept into the 
grave, if we live to see that painful hour when the 
closest and dearest ties of an earthly existence are 



324 GLENLYON. 

severed by the tomb, then comes the tune when we 
must be satisfied with the compassionate sympathy 
of a subsequent generation. When memory, instead 
of hope, becomes our only hnk to the world, an 
aged Christian must fervently long for that hour 
when " the weary springs of life stand still at last," 
and when he shall be born into a new and better 
world, there to regain the long lost friends, forgot- 
ten perhaps by all but himself, whom once he loved 
and knew. In such a case, who would not envy 
the weary pilgrim, when closing his eyes on the 
sorrows and infirmities of a present life, in the be- 
lieving hope that his sufferings are over, and the 
victory won for him by a once crucified and now 
glorified Redeemer ? 

" Oh, mourn not for them, their grief is o'er ; 
Oh, weep not for them, they weep no more ; 
For deep is their sleep, though cold and hard 
Their pillow may be in the old kirk-yard." 

Along this glen, we passed the scene of a tragi- 
cal event, in which there certainly seems to have 
been almost an instance of second sight. A most 
promising and intelligent young man, Mr. Campbell, 
factor to Sir Neil Menzies, was most unfortunately 
killed here five years ago, by his horse taking fright, 
and leaping over the parapet of a bridge, when 
both the animal and his rider were dashed to pieces. 
On examining his papers, it was found that, in the 



GLENLYON. 325 

morning of that fatal day, he had risen particularly 
early, and made his will, leaving eveiy article he 
possessed to different friends. Even his wardrobe 
and pocket-handkerchiefs were specified, and not a 
single thing omitted, except the clothes he rode 
out in. 

We must not claim second-sight, however, for 
the well-known General Stewart of Garth, whose 
residence, Drummacharry, being in the glen, he 
gave a farewell-dinner here to all his neighboui-s, 
on the occasion of his departing to take a command 
in the West Indies, and made a speech, inviting the 
whole party to reassemble at the same table that 
day three years j but, alas ! before as many months 
had elapsed, that brave and talented officer fell a 
victim to the climate. His estate has been sold to 
Sir Archibald Campbell of Burmese celebrity, but I 
did not hear whether he fulfilled his predecessor's 
promise, of a dinner on the day specified. It is cu- 
rious that no hospitable bon-vivant ever thought of 
instituting an annual dinner, with ices, turkeys, and 
champaign, in commemoration of his own memory, 
to be continued as long as any one survived who 
had personally known him. It would be some- 
thing new, and might ensure his not being forgotten 
under a certain number of years, which is by no 
means a very easy object for any one to accomplish 
in these busy stirring times. 
28 



TAYMOUTH, 



He saw apartments where appear'd to rise 
What seem'd as men, and fix'd on him their eyes — 
Pictures that spoke ; and there were mirrors tall, 
Doubling each wonder b)' reflecting all. 

Crabbe. 

My dear Cousin, — It is not always true, as 
writing masters persist in telling their pupils, that 
" Familiarity breeds contempt." On the con- 
trary, every day, as it increases my intimacy with 
the Highlands, increases also my respect and admi- 
ration for them, so that I wish to learn by heart 
every nook and cranny throughout their wide extent, 
and feel convinced that life is too short for studying 
thoroughly, and enjoying sufficiently, their inex- 
haustible beauties. 

We this morning treated our eyes to a sight of 
Taymouth, anciently Balloch, one of the chief 
glories of Scotland, belonging for many centuries 
past to the ancestors of Lord Breadalbane, the 
present proprietor, whose family motto has this pe- 
culiarity, that such of the Campbells as are branches 
of the same stem, all carry a sentence which replies 
to their leader. The Marquis says, " Follow me ;" 
to which one family answers, " I follow j" another. 



TAYMOUTH CASTLE. 327 

" Thus far ;" a third, " I bide my time;" a fourth, 
" Victory follows the brave ;" and a fifth, " I follow 
what is right ;" a most judicious limitation to their 
allegiance. The late Peer somewhat perplexed the 
ignorant Highlanders, who had been accustomed 
from time immemorial to call their noble landlords, 
" Breada-a-albane," by insisting on the more mod- 
ern appellation of " My Lo-o-ord," to which they 
are now becoming somewhat accustomed, though it 
still seems to them a great diminution of dignity. 

The Emperor of Russia once declared that if he 
were not Alexander he would be a British country 
gentleman, but I go far beyond him, being convinced 
that Taymouth Castle would be incomparably pre- 
ferable to the Imperial palace at Petersburgh, and 
you will think the same as soon as you have seen 
both, which, by the way, I have not yet done 
myself. 

The rushing Tay devolves from its parent lake 
at the west end of the park, which is varied by fine 
specimens of forest trees in every variety, and situ- 
ated between two ranges of mountains, wooded to 
their summits, and torn asunder to make way for 
the broad expanse of pleasure grounds between. 

With a few architectural faults, this house is a 
noble baronial pile, which has few rivals in the 
Highlands, but the nearer any thing approaches to 
being a ne plus ultra, the more inclined people are to 



328 TAYMOUTH CASTLE. 

exhibit that most universal of all talents, a taste for 
fault-finding, of which I must now give you a speci- 
men. Those who are so fastidious that they cannot 
exist without perfection, should leave this world as 
soon as possible ; but while the objections of critics 
are often frivolous and vexatious, I like to hear the 
opinions of judges, who keep all their eyes open for 
beauty, and only look askance at defects ; accord- 
ingly, I agree with those who object to a wing of 
the old house having been allowed to survive, which 
is obviously incongruous with the modern castle, 
and breaks the line in a plan decidedly meant to be 
formal. This excrescence, which has baffled the 
united taste of the present proprietor and of the 
modern architect, was retained by the late Mar- 
quis as his home while he reared this elegant castle, 
and he became so attached to it that the addition 
would at last have been thrown down by him rather 
than the original. The new edifice forms a large 
solid square, flanked by handsome round towers at 
each corner. One wing on the right contains an 
elegant private chapel, embellished with a highly 
ornamented tower, and the corresponding wing, — 
which does not, however, correspond at all, — is a 
long gothic edifice containing the stables and offices. 
If any description could do half-quarter justice 
to this unsurpassable place, you would say my sketch 
must be "phis belle que la vcrite.^^ Only fancy its 



TAYMOUTH CASTLE. 329 

terrace winding by the river side, its three miles of 
beeches, its lime trees, — forming a gothic arch of 
nearly a mile long, — the forest glades, the flowery 
meadows, the rocks, and wooded hills ! If a fairy 
oifered to add whatever we might propose to em- 
bellish the scene, what could you ask for more 1 
The gardens are delicious, and nothing enchanted 
me more than a fancy dairy, built some years ago, 
of transparent spar, like rough blocks of ice, pro- 
jecting so as to catch every sun-beam, and to reflect 
back all the prismatic colours of the rainbow. It 
looks as if an ice-berg had been stranded here and 
excavated for the occasion, or as if the Empress 
Catherine had sent over a specimen of her celebrated 
frozen-palace to astonish the Highlands. 

Under a grove of trees, I suddenly observed a 
noble herd of red-deer, and it would have driven 
any sportsman crazy with delight to see these grace- 
ful creatures all starting up at our approach. They 
stared for some time, then trotted away in a line, 
tossing their branching horns with inexpressible 
dignity, and after performing a sort of military 
movement round the park, they formed in a half 
circle, wheeled rapidly past us, and took up a com- 
manding position on a high bank very near where 
we stood, appearing there to the utmost advantage. 

At this moment I began to have a glimmering 
recollection that this was the very spot where, two 
28* 



330 TAYMOUTH CASTLE. 

years ago, one of these very animals attacked. Mr. 
Fox Maule's carriage-horses, and killed one, besides 
severely wounding the other. This caused me some 
little panic on beholding the regiment of antlers 
bristling in formidable array so very near, and on 
turning a sharp corner we found ourselves close to 
one tall stately-looking hart. He seemed perfectly 
tame, and allowed me to pat him, becoming gradu- 
ally so propitiated by our friendly attentions, that 
he turned to join the party, and actually walked at 
least a mile in our company, evidently much pleased 
with his new associates, and looking so intelligent 
that he seemed to understand all we said. The red- 
deer are very dangerous, however, in this half-tame 
state, and one transported lately to Ireland, became so 
furious that after killing one man and attacking a 
second, he had to be shot. During our progress, 
therefore, I wished it had been possible civilly to get 
rid of our new companion, as I did not particularly 
enjoy walking in this way, arm and arm with so 
formidable a stranger, but he behaved extremely 
well, and seemed really sorry to leave us, when 

A slammed the gate in his face, on our quitting 

the park. 

Several bisons from South America were like- 
wise grazing near the house at Taymouth, so we 
were in a perfect zoological garden, without the ad- 
vantage of cages, which are, on the whole, rather 



TAYMOUTH CASTLE. 331 

desirable under such circumstances. I was after- 
wards informed that these far-travelled foreigners 
are, even in their own country, exceedingly fierce, 
but in the rich pastures of Perthshire the bisons be- 
come still more irritable. They did not, however, 
take the trouble of tossing us ! 

The Baron's hall, at Taymouth Castle, with its 
cathedral-like door, is a splendid room, the wain- 
scot of richly carved oak, the windows of painted 
glass, emblazoned with the family arms, and the 
oak floor so extremely slippery that only a skilful 
skaiter should venture across. 

In the drawing-room hang two portraits alleg- 
ed to be Vandyke's best. That artist's great patron, 
with whom he frequently resided, was Rich, Earl of 
Holland, one of the handsomest men of the age ; 
and ample justice has been done here to the chival- 
ric appearance of that nobleman, so admired at court 
that Charles the First became jealous, and caused 
him to be imprisoned within his own house. The 
Earl's politics, like the Vicar of Bray's, were most 
accommodating, but nevertheless, he died on the 
scaffold at last, for making one final effort in behalf 
of his royal master. That melancholy end is what I 
always expect to hear of, when admiring any fine 
chevalier-looking portrait of a distinguished man in 
those turbulent days. The costume of this picture 
is too splendid for almost any court in the present 



332 TAYMOUTH CASTLE. 

time. What would Louis Philippe's mud-bespattered 
courtiers say to Lord Holland's white boots trimmed 
with point, a dress of white and gold, and a scarlet 
cloak flowing down behind, while his magnificent 
armour, which seems to have been that moment put 
off, is glittering beside him 1 

The other Vandyke represents Lord Holland's 
elder brother, the Earl of Warwick, High Admiral 
of England, and a steady supporter of Cromwell's. 
In those days he kept open house for the clergy, 
saying, "I make merry with them and at them." 
This picture is very animated, the dress beautiful, 
and the silken hose so exceedingly pink that they 
would put a rose to the blush, but in those days 
silk stockings were borrowed even by a crowned 
monarch, and few noblemen beings rich enoufjh to 
have any, the painter has shown them due attention. 

Here also we observed several pictures by 
Jameson, the Scottish Vandyke, whose prices would 
be an excellent example to modern artists, for we 
might all sit, if portraits of first-rate merit cost only 
£1, 3s. 4d. per head ! Most of the Tay mouth an- 
cestors are now in London, getting themselves re- 
freshed, re-gilt, and re-varnished, but we saw the 
first Lord Breadalbane, one of the cleverest men in 
his day, who married the daughter of Lord Holland, 
and, when she died, he gained large estates in Caith- 
ness, by espousing a widow, heiress to the ancient 



GLAMMIS CASTLE. 333 

Earls of Caithness. Having occasion to conquer 
his newly acquired territory, he caused a ship, laden 
with whiskey, to be purposely stranded off the coast, 
and when the people assembled to plunder it, he 
surprised them in a state of intoxication, and de- 
feated the revellers with great slaughter. 

In the new addition to Taymouth Castle, some 
of the sitting-rooms appear only to be accessible by 
passing through the chapel ; and the ceiling of the 
libraiy has already cost j£300. It is most elaborately 
decorated in the antique style, with deep cornices, 
and a profusion of curious devices ; but in order fully 
to examine and appreciate all the ornaments, a 
visiter would require to prostrate himself for some 
hours on the floor. 

About twelve miles beyond Cupar, in the rich 
valley of Strathmore, stands the beautiful castle of 
Glammis, a tall building nearly one hundred feet 
high, with a world of spires, towers, turrets, and 
battlements ; but its greatest peculiarity is the shape, 
having four wings projecting like spokes of a wheel, 
towards different points of the compass. It has for 
ages past belonged to the Earls of Strathmore, who 
must have been, if painters did not flatter in former 
days, as they sometimes do now, a singularly hand- 
some race. The most interesting event in this fam- 
ily w'as the tragical fate of the young, innocent, and 
beautiful Lady Glammis, publicly and ignominiously 



334 GLAMMIS CASTLE. 

burned to death for witchcraft on the Castlehill of 
Edinburgh. She was sister to the Earl of Angus, 
whom James the Fifth, his step-son, hated, and his 
royal detestation against the house of Douglas, led 
him to accuse this amiable lady of " spelling away 
his life." His Majesty certainly contrived to shorten 
hers I Lady Glammis's son, a mere child, was for- 
feited, imprisoned, and condemned to be executed, 
but after the king's death he was restored. His 
eldest son, the chancellor, was slain by accident, 
in consequence of a feud with the Earl of Craw- 
ford ; and his second son was the gruff Master of 
Glammis, who kept the door against King James 
during the famous raid of Ruthven ; and when the 
young monarch burst into tears, he dryly remarked, 
" Better that children weep than bearded men," a 
view of the subject which his Majesty never forgot. 

In later times there were six brothers in this 
family, who, each in succession, became Earl of 
Strathmore, and the last died a very amiable death 
when endeavouring to pacify some angry combat- 
ants in a brawl. 

As we are homeward-bound now, I expect soon 
to exchange writing for speaking, and nanrative 
for dialogue, which will be a most welcome improve- 
ment in our intercourse, and I hope our two minds 
will often strike a hght between them. I have 
sometimes thought how curious it would be, if a 



GLAMMIS CASTLE. 335 

volume were supernaturally to appear at the end of 
men's lives, containing all they have ever spoken. 
Some would be seen to have scarcely uttered so 
many words altogether as would fill a small duode- 
cimo, while others have rattled out more in a day 
than most people in a year ; but, as Pope says, the 
tongue is a race-horse, that runs the faster the less 
it carries. We shall both of course hit exactly the 
happy medium between taciturnity and volubility ; 
meantime wishing yoii joy of having so voluminous 
a correspondent, I bid you once more, a very short 
adieu. 

Lost in earth, in air, or main, 
Kindred atoms meet again ! 



BLAIR-ATHOL. 



Give ear unto my song, 

And if you find it wondrous short, 

It cannot hold you long. Goldsmith. 

My dear Cousin, — This is the only letter I have 
yet felt any regret in sitting down to write, being 
my P.P.C. It is always unpleasant to do any thing 
for the last time, — even when finally stepping out 
of an old hack-chaise. I could almost muster up 
some fine feelings for the occasion. Conceive then 
my emotion, on parting with this veteran pen, split 
up to the hilt, and on giving it a final dip into ink 
as thick as a pudding ; but one great secret of writing 
is, to know the proper time for stopping, and I 
agree with a very sensible French writer who 
remarks, " C'est le role d'un sot d'etre invportun. 
L'homme sage, scait disparoifre le moment qui pre- 
cede celui ou il seroit de trop.^' 

A gay annual meeting takes place in Perthshire 
at this season, for the practice and exhibition of all 
those athletic games and exercises for which the 
Highlanders used formerly to be so pre-eminent, and 
as it is held this year close to Blair-Athol, at the 
bridge of Tilt, we thought our best compensation 
for not seeing Lord Eglinton's Tilting would be, to 



BLAIR-ATHOL. 337 

join this rendezvous at the Tilt meetmg, especially, 
as we were invited to accompany a party with whom 
it would have been a pleasure to go anywhere, and 
accordingly we proceeded to what an English 
stranger called by mistake " the kilt meeting." 

Here, as well as at the Ayrshire tournament, the 
spectators would all have required the Humane So- 
ciety's apparatus to recover drowned persons, for the 
rain fell in such torrents, it really was a natural cu- 
riosity worth coming all the distance to see. Though 
wind and weather did not permit, however, crowds 
remained many hours on the ground, and in full stare, 
and certainly a more curious exhibition can scarcely 
be fancied than those Olympic games of the North. 

On a grassy plain, like a magnified bowling- 
green, surrounded by a ring of wild and wooded 
mountains, we saw a brilliant circle of carriages, 
filled with ladies — all young and beautiful, of course 
— wearing arches of feathers over their heads, and 
gardens of flowers underneath their bonnets. Within 
this wreath of beauty and fashion, was collected a 
multitude of tall, fine-looking Highlanders, showily 
dressed in the gay tartans of their various clans. 
Here kilts, philabegs, plaids, dirks. Highland bon- 
nets, and eagles' feathers w^ere all mingled in one 
dazzling medley, varied by the animated counte- 
nances of those who wore them, all glowing with 
health, excitement, and good humour. The scene 
29 



338 BLAIR-ATHOL. 

was greatly enlivened by the warlike bagpipes, dec- 
orated with magnificent banners, and long streamers 
which floated like rainbows in the air ; and without 
doubt the most dignified looking human being who 
steps upon the earth, is a Highland piper in full cos- 
tume, his feathers waving like cedar trees in his bon- 
net, while he blows through his pipe till he almost 
blows his head off, and struts about, as if he were 
leading all his clansmen to victory. We have 
never been distinctly told what was " the tune the 
cow died of," but I am convinced it could only be a 
Highland pibroch. 

The chieftains, noblemen, and gentlemen in gen- 
eral, wore the undress tartan livery of their clans, 
exactly similar to that of their tenants, servants, or 
dependents, and we were expected to distinguish the 
aristocracy from the democracy, not by any advan- 
tages of dress and ornament, but by a native superi- 
ority of air, manner, and appearance. In some cases 
this was very easily done, for we could trace a dig- 
nity of exterior in those accustomed to authority and 
distinction, carrying " pride in their port, and defi- 
ance in their eye," which announced at once a man 
of birth and rank, but, on the other hand, there were 
many illustrious individuals, who relied on our pen- 
etration rather too implicitly. Among so many fine 
soldier-like men, practised in fencing, dancing, and 
other manly exercises, it required something very 



BLAIR-ATHOL. 339 

nearly superhuman to cause an instinctive recogni- 
tion of any person's real rank and consequence. If 
the officers in a regiment were all equipped exactly 
like the men, and indiscriminately mingled together, 
it might puzzle even a Field Marshal, or a Lord in 
Waiting to discriminate the difference ; and even a 
Highland chief, in coarse tartan plaid, and blue bon- 
net, looks sometimes, to an ordinary eye, not very 
unlike a Highland drover. 

I have heard of such a contradiction in terms as 
" an aristocratic democrat," which may do in poli- 
tics perhaps, but can scarcely be hit off in dress ; 
and it is such voluntary levelling of their own exter- 
nal distinctions in the higher classes, which produces 
Radicalism and discontent among the lower orders. 
If noblemen and landed proprietors, instead of 
" hiding behind the veil of insignificancy," would 
take the trouble — for a trouble it certainly must be — 
to appear on all public occasions in a degree of state 
suitable to their dignity, we should hear less about 
the feelings of equality and insubordination, which 
are now so rapidly increasing among those who, 
being unable to estimate moral and intellectual pre- 
eminence, know nothing -of great men but their out- 
ward aspect, and who observe little in that respect 
very obviously superior to themselves. You have 
often seen the sun, when shorn of his beams, look 
very like the moon, and I could fancy how conve- 



340 BLAIR-ATHOL. 

nient it would be to a peacock, if he could go about 
occasionally quite incog without his tail, but then 
he must not be surprised if other birds think them- 
selves as good as he. The old proverb is really 
mistaken in saying, that " pride feels no pain," be- 
cause it is often put to a great deal of inconvenience 
by the external trappings of magnificence, which 
nevertheless it is unfair towards all ranks of society, 
entirely to lay aside. 

A tall grand looking Highlander in full costume 
was pointed out to me at the Tilt meeting, who held 
himself particularly erect, and walked with a free 
and graceful step. My companion whispered that 

he was the eldest son of Lord S n, and I never 

guessed, of course, that there could be any mistake, 
till several minutes afterwards, when he appeared 
in the ring as a competitor, instead of a judge, and 
he turned out to be an innkeeper, celebrated for his 
prowess and activity. It must be difficult for men 
making so astonishing a display of agility and power, 
which they probably occupy years in acquiring, to 
remember always the admonition of the Holy Scrip- 
ture, not to " glory in their strength." 

Each performer successively carried the well- 
grown trunk of a larch tree, nearly twenty feet 
long, quite erect in his hands, and after running a 
few steps, threw it violently forward with so strong 
an impetus, that the top struck the ground, and it 



BLAIR-ATHOL. 341 

wheeled completely over, describing a half-circle in 
the air. As one competitor after another attempted 
this Herculean feat, a pause of intense interest took 
place, but the greatest success«did not elicit a sowp- 
gon of applause. If the audience had been com- 
posed of Madame Tassaud's wax-work figures, they 
could scarcely have remained more passive. Except 
a glance of surprise exchanged between those who 
stood nearest each other, no external symptom of 
approbation appeared ! It is so commonly the case 
in Scotland, that orators, musicians, and other pub- 
lic performers, become discouraged and abashed by 
the solemn silence which follows their most bril- 
liant efforts, that I mean to invent a machine, and 
take out a patent for it, which shall make a sound 
like the clapping of several hundred hands, when- 
ever any single individual touches the spring, 
which will thus fill up the pauses of orators, while 
searching for an idea, and afford the encouragement 
necessary for carrying on every display of ability 
with proper spirit. The only speech I have heard 
of lately which excited sufficient enthusiasm, was 
that of a political candidate to a Radical mob, when 
he began by saying, " Gentlemen !" and not one of 
the audience having ever been thus addressed before, 
the burst of applause became so deafening, that not 
another word of his speech was audible. 

Highland dancing displays incomparable execu- 
29* 



342 BLAIR-ATHOL. 

tion, and requires a rapidity of movement which the 
eye can scarcely follow. One of the performances 
would have amused you much, on account of the ex- 
treme precision and neatness which it required, being 
quite in the hair-breadth style. Two walking sticks 
are laid on the ground in a horizontal cross, within 
the four angles of which a dancer undertakes to per- 
form with matchless rapidity a series of the most 
intricate steps, but the instant his foot accidentally 
touches one of the sticks, he is obliged to stop. For- 
merly two sharp swords supplied the place of those 
inoffensive poles, and they so effectually disabled a 
performer, after the slightest yatM; 'pas, from contin- 
uing to exhibit, that he might as well have executed 
his hornpipe among red-hot ploughshares. The 
dance gets quicker and quicker, the music more 
rapid, and the steps more intricate every instant, 
while the competitor passes with ceaseless activity 
over the prostrate sticks, springing so lightly across, 
that his feet seem only pointing at the ground, with- 
out ever resting on it. All that feet can do, these 
Highlanders did, and more than I ever saw any feet 
attempt before, but we all looked on in solemn 
silence, as if witnessing an execution. 

Nothing ever looked more like insanity than the 
reels at last ! Four stout Highlanders, in full dress, 
raised on a wet slippery wooden platform, and 
dancing in the open air, under a torrent of rain, 



BLAIR -ATHOL. 343 

cracking their fingers to imitate castenets, shuffling, 
capeiing, cutting, whirhng round, and uttering a 
sort of sudden yell, customary here, during a very 
animated dance, to encourage the piper. In tolera- 
ble weather this would have been all very enlivening, 
but I felt grieved for the beautiful tartans, which 
grew dim as we looked at them, and such joyous 
merriment, under a canopy of mist, rain, and east 
wind, seemed quite delirious. 

The wives, sisters, and daughters of the perfor- 
mers were all anxiously looking on from beneath 
their cotton umbrellas with sensations of interest 
and excitement, such as the greatest gambler on a 
race-course might have envied, and my chief diver- 
sion arose from watching their eager countenances, 
while frequently, in a burst of uncontrollable excite- 
ment, they broke through the lines, and advanced 
within a few paces of the competitors. At one 
moment, when the rain poured down with peculiar 
vehemence, a crowd of dripping-wet clansmen, to 
save their gay tartans, put up a multitude of umbrel- 
las, and cowered so near our carriage for shelter, 
that we saw nothing of the dancing. My teasing 
dilemma being observed by one of the judges who 
happened to pass, he obligingly resolved to befriend 
me, and called out to the men in a tone of indignant 
astonishment, " Put down these umbrellas ! ! Who 
ever heard before of A Highlander WITH AN umbrella!" 



344 BLAIR-ATHOL. 

Down dropped every umbrella on the spot, and 
the poor men looked like convicted criminals, quite 
humbled at the very idea of being considered effemi- 
nate, while I really sympathized in their mortifica- 
tion, aware that, to a Celt, no accusation could have 
been more unwelcome. 

As a learned philosopher once judiciously ob- 
served, " every thing that has a limit must come to 
an end ;" and now having introduced you to the 
scenery, machinery, and decorations of the High- 
lands, while the whole dramatis persona are col- 
lected on the stage in a state of perfect happiness, I 
must remember that, under such circumstances, it is 
customary for either a comedy or tragedy to con- 
clude, after which the manager makes his final 
speech, filled with humility on account of his own 
deficiencies, and of gratitude for favours received. 
According, therefore, to established prescription, I 
shall finish now, in the appropriate words of Shak- 
speare : 

Thus on your patience evermore attending, 
New joy wait on you ! Here our play has ending. 

Flourish of trumpets, drums and bagpipes, — 
enter a procession of Highlanders. They form a 
group, and the curtain gradually drops, amidst 
thunders of applause. [Exeunt. 

THE END. 



INDEX. 




Aberdeen, .... 


Page 
. 259 


College of, . . 


261 


Episcopal, Qhurch at, . 
Abergeldie Castle, . . . . 


. 263 

284 


Allyre, approach to, ? 

Atholl, Duke of, . . . . 


. 309 
309 


Barrogill Castle, . . . . 


.58 


Berridale, . . . . . 


24 


Brodie Castle, .... 


. 145 


Portraits at, ... 


146 


Balgownie, .... 
BalVeny Castle, . . . • . 
Ballindalloch, .... 


. 175 

186 

. 186 


Banff, ...... 


234 


Balmorrall, .... 


. 285 


Blairgowrie, ..... 


294 


Blair-Athol, .... 


. 336 


Tilt-meeting at, . 
Caithness, .... 


337 
. 39 


Ordof, . . . . 
Fishermen of, . 


21 

27 


Castle Grant, ..... 


178 


Portraits at, . 


. 183 


CuUen House, ..... 


228 


Portraits at, 


. 229 


Castle Fraser, . . , , , 


267 


Castle Forbes, .... 


. 273 


Craigievar, ..... 
Castle, 


278 

. 277 



346 



INDEX. 



Craighall, 

Castle Blair, .... 

Castle Menzies, . 

Dornoch, .... 

Cathedral at, 
Duke and Duchess of Sutherland, . 
Dunrobin Castle, 

Portraits at, 
Dunbeath, Castle of, 
Darnaway Castle, s- 

Portraits at, ... 
Dunphail, .... 

Cummingof, 

Great flood at, 
Duff House, 

Portraits at, . 
Dunottar Castle, . 
Dee, River, .... 
Dunkeld, .... 

Cathedral, . 

Grounds of, 
Elchies, .... 

Elgin, .... 

Cathedral at, 
Fowling, Anecdotes of, . 
Pair Isle, .... 

Singular Religious destitution of, 

Recommended as a Missionary Station, 

Treatment of a shipwrecked crew at. 
Fort Charlotte, .... 

Ferrytown, 
Forres, .... 

Ancient Monument near, 
Fochabers, .... 

Infant Schools at, 



INDEX. 



Fyvie, 

Castle, 

Park of, 

Portraits at, . 
Golspie, . 
Girnigo Castle, 
Grantown, . . 

Glenfiddich, . 
Gordon Castle, ; 

Portraits at, , 
Glenlivet, . 
Glenlyon, 

Large yew-tree at, 
Gordon, Duke of, 

Duchess of, 
Glammis Castle, 
Helmsdale, . 

Castle of, 
Huntly, Countess of, 
Inverness, 

Wool market at, 
Invercauld, 

John O'Groat's House, . 
Kirkwall, 

Cathedral of, 
Kildrummy Castle, . 

History of, 
Killiecrankie, 
Lerwick, . 

Hospitality at. 
Laird of Bonymoon, 
Lynn of Dee, 
Lude, 
Logie Rait, 
Lady Glammis, tragical fate of, 



348 



INDEX. 



Mitchell, James, 
Moy House, 
Morayshire, . 
Monymusk, 
Macbeih's Cairn, 
Mar Lodge, 
Nottingham House, 
Nairn, 
Pitfichy, 
Reluglas, . 
Sinclair Castle, 
Stircoke, . 
Second Sight, 
Scrabster Castle, . 
Shetland, 

Road in. 

Manufactures of, 

First Steam-boat to, 

Sheep of, 

Ponies of, 

Birds of. 
Sir John Sinclair, 
Sumburgh-head, 
Sanda, Isle of, 
Sanquhar House, 
Spey Bridge, 
Sir Neil Menzies, 
Thurso, . 

Castle of, 
Taymouth, 

Castle, 

Portraits at, 
Wick, , 

Popish Chapel at, 
Weem, . . 






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